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OF    THE  I 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA, 

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http://www.archive.org/details/educationofteachOOpaynrich 


The  Education  of  Teachers 


BY 


W,  H*  PAYNE 


Chancellor  of  the  Uni'oerstty  of  Nashville  and  President  of  ffte 
Peabody  Norma.1  College 


RICHMOND: 

B.  F.  JOHNSON  PUBLISHING  CO. 

)901 


-^\n^ 


^3 


GENERAL 


Copyrfght,  1 90 J, 
By  W.  H.  PAYNE 


Ali  r^hts  reserotd 


PREFACE 


It  may  help  the  reader  to  interpret  the  doctrines  embodied 
in  the  following  essays  if  he  has  before  him  a  brief  synopsis 
of  the  writer's  opinions  on  the  education  of  teachers.  Every 
man  who  has  patiently  studied  the  problems  of  education  has 
formed  for  himself,  little  by  little,  an  educational  creed,  or 
confession  of  faith ;  and  it  is  well  on  such  an  occasion  as  the 
writing  of  a  book  to  throw  into  articulate  form  the  articles  of 
one's  faith  or  belief  as  they  relate  to  the  field  of  thought 
traversed  by  writer  and  reader. 

Teaching  is  a  spiritual  frt  and  classifies  with  music,  poetry 
and  oratory,  rather  than  with  the  mechanic  arts,  the  arts  that 
deal  with  matter  and  its  fixed  and  uniform  relations. 

As  teaching  has  to  do  with  spirit,  methods  of  teaching  should 
not  be  fixed  and  invariable,  but  flexible  and  fluid,  adapted  to 
the  modes  and  phases  of  variable  spirit.  In  all  intelligent  and 
effective  teaching,  principles,  rather  than  rules,  should  be 
held  at  a  premium.  Versatile  teaching  will  draw  its  methods 
from  prolific  principles  and  will  reflect  the  personality  of  the 
teacher  who  uses  them.  When  methods  become  uniform, 
teaching  becomes  mechanical  and  wooden. 

Teachers  should  be  educated  rather  than  trained,  education 
pointing  to  versatility  and  freedom,  training  to  uniformity  and 
mechanism.  A  teacher's  education  should  be  of  the  liberal 
type.  The  teacher  himself  should  first  of  all  be  a  scholar  in 
spirit  and  attainment,  and  his  strictly  professional  studies 
should  also  be  of  the  liberal  type. 

A  teacher's  strictly  professional  education  will  consist  of 


114947 


4  PREFACE 

two  main  elements  or  parts,  the  one  psychological,  the  other, 
for  want  of  a  better  term,  logical ;  he  must  have  a  knowledge 
of  mind  in  its  organic  modes  of  procedure  while  engaged  in 
the  act  of  acquiring  knowledge,  and  he  must  know  the  educa- 
tion value  of  the  different  knowledges  presented  for  acquisi- 
tion. The  teachers'  art  will  then  consist  in  intelligently 
adapting  means  to  ends,  and  will  exhibit  the  play  of  cause 
and  effect. 

The  science  of  psychology  is  convertible  into  the  art  of 
teaching  only  to  a  limited  extent,  many  of  the  truths  of  psy- 
chology being  as  remote  from  human  control  as  certain  truths 
of  astronomy.  There  is  now  in  process  of  slow  formation, 
within  the  science  of  education,  a  science  of  education  values. 
So  far,  its  previsions  are  mainly  qualitative,  but  even  with 
this  limitation  a  rational  science  of  teaching  is  dependent 
on  a  determination  of  these  values. 

Modern  pedagogy  assumes  too  large  a  difference  between  the 
mind  of  the  child  and  the  mind  of  the  adult.  The  difference 
is  in  degree,  rather  than  in  kind.  When  the  child  of  six 
enters  school  he  represents  all  the  modes  of  mental  activity 
that  are  manifested  by  the  adult ;  and  it  is  safer  and  better  to 
infer  the  essential  elements  of  child  mind  from  the  known 
elements  of  adult  mind  than  to  rediscover  them  by  experiment 
in  the  modern  "psychological  laboratory." 

Education  is  a  conservative  art,  and  progress  in  this  art 
should  take  place  by  evolution  rather  than  by  revolution. 
Perhaps  the  term  progressive  conservatism  best  indicates  the 
ideal  attitude  of  the  wise  teacher.  The  tonic  effect  of  histori- 
cal study  is  conservative ;  and  a  wholesome  check  to  educa- 
tional fads  and  vagaries  would  be  a  patient  study  of  the 
history  of  education. 


PREFACE  5) 

Teaching  is  a  beneficent  vocation  and  the  highest  motive  of 
the  teacher  is  the  love  of  doing  good.  To  be  humane  in  spirit 
and  benevolent  in  act  is  to  possess  the  highest  qualifications 
for  the  vocation  oi  teaching.  The  basis  of  good  order  and 
wholesome  discipline  is  the  respect  and  affection  which  the 
young  have  for  their  benefactors. 

A  sense  of  superiority  and  a  pride  of  authority  have  often 
alienated  the  student  body  from  the  teaching  body,  and  have 
fostered  antagonisms  detrimental  to  peace  and  good  order.  A 
scrupulous  respect  for  the  rights  and  feelings  of  students 
should  be  a  first  principle  in  the  art  of  school  management. 

Ajs  a  school  is  an  organization,  there  must  be  a  certain 
amount  of  mechanism  in  school  administration  ;  but  when  a 
love  for  the  mechanical  has  become  the  prevalent  spirit,  the 
higher  life  of  the  school  will  be  destroyed.  Where  masses  of 
children  are  to  be  taught  by  a  comparatively  small  number  of 
teachers,  too  much  reliance  is  placed  on  the  mechanics  of 
school  administration,  and  there  is  many  a  school  system, 
highly  organized  as  a  machine,  which  provokes  the  inquiry : 
Can  these  dry  bones  live  ? 

The  low  state  of  educational  science  is  indicated  by  the  fact 
that  writers  who  speak  with  authority  have  invented  a  fiction 
they  call  Nature,  and  then,  by  a  curious  illusion,  have  pro- 
ceeded to  build  on  it  as  though  it  were  a  fact,  thus  confusing 
science  with  mythology. 

W.  H.  PAYNE. 

W00DLA.WN,  MONTEAGLE,  May  15,  1901. 


CONTENTS 

I  The  Education  of  Teachers      -     -     -  11 
II  Wholesome  Culture    -------  41 

III  The  Policy  of  Benevolence      -     -     -  61 

TV  Teaching  a  Spiritual,  not  a  Mechan- 
ical, Art -  79 

Y  Teachers  to  be  Educated,  not  Trained  95 

VI  Education  According  to  Nature    -     -  115 

YII  A  Theory  of  Education  Yalues    -     -  143 

YIII  Equity  in  Examinations 187 

APPENDIX 

I  The  Universal  Vocation -     •  215 

II  A  Theory  of  Life 249 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS 


I 

THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS 

The  history  of  normal  schools  shows  that  their 
original  purpose  was  merely  to  extend  the  scholarship 
of  those  students  who  intended  to  become  teachers, 
the  theory  being  that  fitness  for  teaching  consisted  in 
the  possession  of  more  than  the  average  amount  of 
learning.  This  had  been  the  conception  held  by  the 
ancient  universities,  which  were  teachers'  seminaries, 
whose  students,  obliged  to  teach  as  a  condition  of 
graduation,  bound  themselves  to  teach  for  a  specified 
time  after  graduation.  It  is  easy  to  see  how  this 
thought  would  naturally  be  transferred  to  the  people's 
schools  at  the  time  when  the  Reformation  had  made 
it  necessary  that  every  child  should  be  educated. 
This  new  movement  required  the  sudden  creation  of 
an  army  of  teachers  who  were  to  be  improvised,  so 
to  speak,  by  selecting  the  brighter  pupils  in  the 
schools  and  giving  them  a  more  thorough  and  a  more 
extended  knowledge  of  subjects. 

The  next  movement  in  normal  instruction  might 
have  been  anticipated.     It  would  necessarily  happen 


12         THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS 

that  teachers  having  good  scholarship  would  some- 
times fail,  while  other  teachers,  though  having  poorer 
scholarship,  would  meet  with  surprising  success ;  and 
it  was  an  easy  inference  that  method  was  another 
element  in  a  teacher's  professional  outfit  almost  co- 
ordinate with  scholarship.  Pestalozzi  was  an  illus- 
trious example  of  the  fact  that  a  man  of  very  limited 
learning  may  nevertheless  become  a  great  teacher. 
He  had  such  sovereign  confidence  in  method  as  dis- 
tinguished from  scholarship  that  he  believed  a  text- 
book constructed  according  to  his  method  would 
enable  an  illiterate  man  or  woman  to  become  a  good 
teacher.  His  dream  was  to  make  education  universal. 
To  this  end  he  would  make  of  every  home  a  school, 
and  of  every  mother  a  teacher;  and  to  the  obvious 
objection  that  these  mothers  were  too  ignorant  to  teach, 
he  replied  that,  armed  with  his  method,  ignorance 
was  no  bar  to  home  instruction.  Jacotot  also  aimed 
at  universal  instruction,  and  in  answer  to  the  objec- 
tion that  it  was  not  possible  to  supply  the  requisite 
number  of  teachers,  owing  to  the  prevailing  ignor- 
ance, he  resorted  to  his  famous  paradox :     One  can 

TEACH    WHAT    HE    DOES    NOT    KNOW. 

Following   what   may   be    called   the   Pestalozzian 
movement  in  education  method  became  the  dominant 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS         13 

feature   in   normal   instruction,  and   scholarship  was 
relegated  to  a  subordinate  place. 

The  next  movement  might  also  have  been  antici- 
pated. The  brilliant  success  of  Pestalozzi  brought 
forth  a  lusty  crop  of  competitors  and  rivals.  As  it 
was  by  his  "  method  "  that  Pestalozzi  had  triumphed, 
each  contestant  felt  obliged  to  exploit  his  own  method 
in  order  to  make  a  stand  against  the  reigning  craze, 
just  as  in  these  latter  days  each  ambitious  educator 
must  exploit  his  fad  in  order  to  compete  on  even 
terms  with  his  brethren  who  are  exploiting  their  fads. 
Method  was  thus  pitted  against  method,  and  it  could 
not  fail  to  happen  that  each  innovator  would  finally 
be  forced  to  defend  his  hobby  by  pleading  some  doc- 
trine or  principle  as  its  basis  and  final  justification. 
The  center  of  debate  has  thus  been  transferred  to  the 
field  of  science  where  the  final  stand  must  be  made, 
and  here  the  contest  is  waxing  warmer  and  warmer. 
One  educator  invokes  the  name  of  Spencer,  another 
of  Froebel,  and  another  of  Herbart,  Each  is  appa- 
rently deaf  to  the  merits  of  every  system  of  educa- 
tional philosophy  save  his  own,  holding  that  his 
prophet  has  delivered  the  final  message  to  the  world. 

It  results  from  this  brief  historical  statement  that 
experience  has  developed  three  main  factors  in  the 


14  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

professional  education  of  teachers :  scholarship,  method 
and  doctrine.  Under  scholarship  is  included  little  more 
than  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  subjects  included  in 
the  ordinary  school  course.  By  a  sort  of  forecast  it  is 
determined  what  subjects  a  student  may  be  called  on 
to  teach ;  these  he  is  made  to  master  with  great  thor- 
oughness, and  with  the  ever  present  thought  that  they 
are  to  be  the  instruments  of  his  calling,  and  that  their 
chief  value  lies  in  their  instrumental  use.  The  nar- 
rowing effect  of  this  mode  of  study  is  still  further  in- 
tensified by  the  student's  preoccupation  with  method. 
Much  of  the  working  power  of  his  mind  is  absorbed 
in  the  effort  to  answer  the  ever  recurring  question : 
**How  shall  I  present  this  subject  to  my  class?'' 
Insistence  on  technique  reaches  its  culmination  in  the 
practice  school  when  the  student,  in  a  class  not  his 
own,  and  in  the  face  of  perfunctory  critics,  is  made 
to  exemplify  the  methods  that  have  been  prescribed 
by  the  teacher  in  charge  of  this  branch  of  the  pro- 
fessional work.  I  am  far  from  saying  that  this  ques- 
tion of  method  is  unimportant.  My  only  purpose  in 
this  place  is  to  show  that  under  the  conditions  named 
the  attainment  of  real  scholarship  becomes  impossible. 
Perhaps  liberal  learning  is  not  desirable  as  a  qualifica- 
tion for  the  teaching  oflBice.     That  may  be  an  open 


THE    EDUCATION    OF.  TEACHERS  15 

question ;  but  if  it  be  considered  a  condition  essential 
to  high  success  in  the  teacher's  vocation,  it  must  be 
secured  under  different  conditions.  In  the  pursuit  of 
liberal  learning,  or  culture  proper,  the  mind  must 
work  in  an  air  of  freedom,  and  must  be  absorbed  in 
the  subject  itself,  and  not  in  the  utilities  that  it  may 
be  made  to  serve.  What  Plato  says  of  the  study  of 
arithmetic  is  true  of  every  study  that  is  to  enter  into 
a  liberal  education  :  * '  Not  cultivating  it  with  a  view 
to  buying  and  selling,  as  merchants  and  shopkeepers, 
but  for  purposes  of  war,  and  to  facilitate  the  conver- 
sion of  the  soul  itself  from  the  changeable  to  the  tru« 
and  the  real." 

I  shall  now  venture  to  speak  of  scholarship,  method 
and  doctrine,  or  science,  in  what  seems  to  me  to  be 
the  sequence  of  their  importance,  and  shall  try  to  give 
in  outline  my  conception  of  the  attainments,  general 
and  professional,  which  constitute  real  fitness  for  the 
teaching  office. 

It  is  a  flagrant  misuse  of  the  term  scholarship  to 
limit  its  content  to  the  branches  of  study  included  in 
the  ordinary  normal  school  course,  or  even  in  a  college 
course.  Scholarship  includes  spirit  as  well  as  matter, 
an  attitude  of  mind  and  disposition  of  soul,  as  well  as 
the  knowledge  communicated  in  class  rooms.     Many 


16  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

a  man  has  been  graduated  from  college  and  university 
without  in  any  true  sense  becoming  a  scholar ;  while 
many  a  man  has  brought  from  the  high  school,  and 
even  from  the  farm  and  the  shop,  the  essential  spirit 
and  some  of  the  literary  attainments  of  the  genuine 
scholar.  In  respect  of  knowledge,  scholarship  implies 
breadth,  perspective,  a  lifting  of  the  intellectual  hori- 
zon, making  of  the  man  "the  spectator  of  all  time 
and  all  existence  "  ;  and  in  respect  of  spirit,  it  implies 
delicacy  of  taste,  a  tempered  imagination,  and  that 
awakened  zeal  in  learning  which  makes  the  man 
' '  curious  to  learn  and  never  satisfied. ' '  The  scholar 
must  advance  far  enough  in  the  literary  life  to  reach 
that  state  which  Macaulay  calls  ' '  intellectual  emanci- 
pation," that  consciousness  of  power  and  that  poise 
of  judgment  which,  in  the  realm  of  thinking,  makes 
the  man  ' '  a  law  unto  himself ' '  in  the  formation  of 
his  own  opinions.  A  sense  of  mastery  and  power,  a 
free  flight  of  the  liberated  spirit,  an  abiding  pleasure 
in  intellectual  pursuits,  a  conscious  participation  by 
the  individual  in  the  moral  life  of  the  race,  these  are 
some  of  the  marks  of  the  scholarly  vocation.  The 
study  that  does  not  lead  up  to  these  high  endowments 
misses  its  supreme  prerogative.  It  is  not  to  be  ex- 
pected that  even  under  the  best  conditions  a  student 


THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS  17 

will  manifest  in  any  full  measure  the  spirit  of  the 
scholar  while  his  studies  are  in  progress ;  but  it  is  to 
be  expected  that  the  conditions  under  which  he  studies 
should  be  favorable  to  the  growth  of  this  spirit,  and 
that  as  he  enters  more  and  more  fully  into  the  benefi- 
cent school  of  experience,  riper  and  more  abundant 
fruits  will  be  gathered  from  the  seeds  of  this  early 
planting. 

It  is  very  certain  that  students  who  are  pursuing 
their  studies  under  the  galling  stress  of  official  and 
officious  criticism,  and  are  constrained  to  ask  at  each 
step  of  their  progress,  ' '  what  utility  can  I  draw  out 
of  this, ' '  are  working  under  conditions  that  are  hostile 
to  the  rise  and  growth  of  the  scholarly  spirit.  An 
atmosphere  of  freedom  should  pervade  every  school. 
Every  course  of  study,  however  elementary,  should  be 
liberal  in  its  spirit  and  purpose.  Studies  should  be 
learned  for  their  own  sake,  and  not  with  reference  to 
the  utilities  that  they  may  be  made  to  serve;  for 
"they  teach  not  their  own  use,  but  that  is  a  wisdom 
without  them  and  above  them,  won  by  observation." 
The  more  perfect  tlie  form  and  manner  in  which  a 
study  is  learned,  the  greater  will  be  its  utilities  when 
experience  calls  for  them ;  and  it  is  no  paradox  to  say 
that  this  form  and  manner  will  be  most  perfect  when 


18        THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS 

the  study  is  learned  without  the  least  reference  to  its 
future  utilities.  A  divine  admonition  warns  us  against 
disquieting  ourselves  concerning  the  three  great  wants 
of  the  physical  life — food,  drink  and  raiment,  and 
directs  us  first  of  all  to  make  sure  of  that  which 
includes  them  all,  the  Kingdom  of  God,  that  perfect 
state  of  soul  which  is  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy. 
This  sharp  insistence  on  the  technical  and  the  prac- 
«/  tical,  which  I  think  has  wrought  such  harm  in  the 

education  of  teachers,  has  resulted  from  a  false  con- 
ception of  the  teacher's  ai*t,  which  degrades  it  into 
a  handicraft  or  trade  with  rules  as  rigid  as  those  of 
the  mason  and  the  carpenter.  Teaching  is  a  spiritual 
act  or  art  in  which  mind  comes  into  mysterious  and 
quickening  contact  with  mind,  soul  with  soul,  heart 
with  heart,  life  with  life.  Analogies  drawn  from  our 
dealings  with  matter  utterly  fail  us  when  we  come  to 
deal  with  spirit.  We  are  not  dealing  with  uniform 
material  and  fixed  dimensions,  but  with  all  the  varia- 
tions and  diversities  of  impalpable  spirit.  The  pro- 
ducts of  our  art  are  not  uniform,  but  multiform,  and 
our  processes  must  needs  be  so  variable  that  we  cannot 
follow  rules,  but^  must  be  guided  by  principles.  We 
are  not  working  in  that  sphere  of  activity  where  two 
times  two  is  four,  but  where  two  times  two  is  often 


THE    EDUCATION   OF   TEACHERS  19 

ten.  In  its  highest  aspect,  teaching  is  a  process  of 
provocation,  or  induction,  whereby  a  free  and  impress- 
ible spirit  takes  on  moral  and  scholarly  qualities  by 
near  presence  to  a  soul  highly  charged  with  moral  and 
scholarly  qualities.  "What  better  advice  can  be  given 
to  a  teacher  than  this :  '  'Become  addicted  to  the  schol- 
arly vocation  imtil  you  are  possessed  by  the  scholarly 
spirit ;  charge  yourself  highly  mth  benevolence,  and 
be  kindly  affectioned  towards^  those  whom  you  would 
guide  and  teach ;  make  large  investments  in  yourself, 
to  the  end  that  you  may  become  *  noble  and  gracious, 
the  friend  of  truth,  justice,  courage,  temperance?'  " 

The  studies  whose  special  value  lies  in  the  fact 
that  they  are  catholic,  or  breadth-giving,  are  geogra- 
phy, history  and  literature;  hence  the  teacher  who 
would  endow  himself  with  a  proper  frame  or  attitude 
of  mind  should  addict  himself  in  an  especial  manner 
to  these  three  subjects. 

In  geography  the  central  thought  is  the  fact  that 
the  earth  is  the  home  or  dwelling  place  of  the  human 
race.  From  this  point  of  view  geography  becomes  a 
humane  or  culture  subject  of  the  first  quality,  and  the 
effect  of  this  study  is  to  make  the  student  cosmopolitan 
and  catholic,  tolerant  and  beneficent. 

The  charm  and  value  of  history  lie  in  its  delinea- 


20  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

tions  of  national  life,  its  record  of  the  struggles  en- 
dured by  the  race  and  the  steps  taken  in  its  upward 
and  onward  progress.  In  its  pages  we  witness  the 
slow  and  painful  evolution  of  human  liberty  and  the 
gradual  development  of  the  moral  and  intellectual 
life.  Seeing  the  struggles  and  sorrows  of  the  race, 
we  are  brought  into  sympathetic  relations  with  the 
human  family  and  are  prepared  to  do  service  towards 
the  betterment  of  the  world. 

Literature  brings  us  into  special  and  intimate  rela- 
tions with  the  very  heart,  mind  and  life  of  the  race 
through  its  choicest  spirits  and  noblest  representatives. 
The  highest  attainments  of  the  race  in  thought  and 
feeling,  its  highest,  purest  aspirations  and  ideals  be- 
come our  heritage  and  endowment  through  the  reading 
and  mastery  of  good  books.  Yirtue  becomes  capitalized 
in  the  literature  of  the  race,  so  that  in  the  moral  life 
we  may  start  with  the  attainments  made  by  the  better 
spirits  of  our  age.  These  three  humane  studies  give 
us  poise,  vision,  and  tempered  zeal,  and  so  prepare  us 
to  deal  intelligently  with  the  problems  of  human 
education. 

The  best  defence  for  the  general  study  of  the  phy- 
sical sciences  is  not  their  practical  utility  which  ac- 
crues to  the  race  through  specialists ;  but  their  culture 


THE    EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS  21^ 

value,  as  they  enable  the  mind  to  interpret  the  cosmos, 
to  unravel  the  mysteries  of  our  physical  environment. 
As  they  deal  with  matter  and  not  with  life,  and  par- 
ticularly not  with  human  life,  they  cannot  be  classed 
with  geography,  history  and  literature  as  humane 
studies;  but  as  they  deal  with  general  causes  and 
reach  large  generalizations  they  give  the  mind  a  firm 
grasp  on  details,  explain  phenomena  and  make  the 
cosmos  intelligible.  Their  study  greatly  increases  the 
comprehensive  power  of  the  hmnan  mind  and  gives  a 
comfortable  sense  of  mastery  over  infinite  details.  For 
the  great  mass  of  men  these  studies  serve,  not  for 
ability,  but  for  delight.  We  need  to  know  astronomy, 
not  that  we  may  draw  utilities  from  the  stars,  but  that 
we  may  be  made  worshipful  and  reverent. 

The  biological  sciences  have  the  same  defense. 
Human  physiology,  seemingly  the  most  practical  of 
them  all,  is  best  defended  on  the  ground  that  it  ex- 
plains the  curious  mechanism  of  the  living  human 
body.  Save  in  the  limited  domain  of  hygiene,  a 
knowledge  of  physiology  is  only  indirectly  useful  to 
the  mass  of  men.  In  the  main  there  is  the  same 
reason  for  knowing  the  structure  of  the  human  body 
as  for  knowing  the  structure  of  a  steam  engine ;  the 
knowledge  resolves  a  mystery : — we  can  comprehend 


22        THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS 

a  wonderful  piece  of  mechanism.  It  is  a  debatable 
question  whether,  on  the  whole,  a  knowledge  of  phy- 
siology is  conducive  to  the  health  and  happiness  of  the 
laity.  If  we  could  tamper  with  the  mind  as  we  can 
with  the  body,  who  can  doubt  that  a  knowledge  of 
psychology  might  be  harmful  rather  than  helpful? 
Whether  a  physician's  knowledge  of  his  own  body  is 
conducive  to  his  health  and  happiness  is  doubtful; 
indeed  the  contrary  may  be  maintained  with  much 
show  of  reason. 

The  teacher's  interest  in  psychology  is  twofold  It 
is  a  prime  culture  subject  in  the  sense  that  it  enables 
him  to  comprehend  the  world  within,  the  world  of 
spirit ;  and  its  main  principles  are  readily  convertible 
into  rules  for  guidance,  teaching  being  in  the  main  an 
applied  psychology,  just  as  medicine  is  an  applied 
physiology.  To  serve  these  purposes  in  a  high  degree 
psychology  should  be  a  positive  science,  dealing  with 
the  actual  facts  of  the  spiritual  life,  and  not  a  specu- 
lative science  dealing  with  mere  hypothesis  and  cloth- 
ing the  treatment  in  congenial  obscurity.  It  should 
represent  in  a  natural  sequence  the  series  of  processes 
through  which  the  mind  passes  while  engaged  in  the 
art  of  learning;  motive,  will,  attention,  acquisition, 
retention,    representation   and   elaboration.      Studied 


THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS  23 

from  this  point  of  view,  psychology  has  the  same  con- 
crete, attractive  interest  for  the  teacher  that  physiology 
has  for  the  physician.  The  main  facts  and  laws  of 
the  spiritual  life  are  as  plain  and  as  easy  of  compre- 
hension as  the  main  facts  and  laws  of  the  physical 
life. 

The  teacher  should  aspire  to  know  something  about 
art,  if  not  in  the  way  of  execution,  at  least  in  the  way 
of  appreciation ;  just  as  he  may  be  addicted  to  poetry 
and  music  without  being  either  a  poet  or  a  musician. 
From  the  noble  creations  of  architecture,  sculpture 
and  painting,  he  should  find  contemplative  delight 
and  refreshment  of  spirit,  and  gain  delicacy  of  taste 
and  some  power  of  aesthetic  discernment.  Such  ex- 
travagance of  beauty  as  there  is  in  the  world  of  form 
and  color  is  not  without  some  high  purpose  and  should 
not  fail  to  yield  some  high  uses.  To  this  end  there 
must  be  some  development  and  training  of  the  aes- 
thetic sense,  which  is  the  mission  of  art.  Alike  in 
literature  and  in  art  the  aim  of  the  student  should  not 
be  criticism,  but  appreciation.  To  pose  as  a  critic 
before  the  masterpieces  of  literature,  architecture, 
sculpture  and  painting  is  ridiculous.  The  only  be- 
coming attitude  for  the  mass  of  intelligent  men  is 
appreciation,  enjoyment.     "What  a  sorry  business  to 


24  THE   EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

sit  in  judgment  on  Wordsworth,  Wren,  Canova,  and 
Turner !  But  what  a  privilege  and  delight  to  enter 
somewhat  into  the  beautiful  world  which  these  masters 
have  created  for  us ! 

Under  scholarship  there  should  be  included  a  knowl- 
edge of  what  we  may  call  the  major  educational  classics 
of  the  world.  It  is  almost  a  liberal  education  to  be 
well  versed  in  this  literature ;  for  it  is  literature  in  the 
best  sense  of  the  term  which  De  Quincey  calls  ' '  the 
literature  of  power. ' '  Much  of  the  so  called  educa- 
tional literature  of  these  days  is  not  of  this  rank,  but 
would,  by  comparison,  classify  more  appropriately 
with  cookbooks  and  gazetteers. 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  overestimate  the  value  of  the 
history  of  education.  In  all  ages  of  the  world  the 
wisest  and  the  best  men  of  their  time  have  devoted 
themselves  to  the  betterment  of  the  race  through  pro- 
cesses and  systems  of  education,  and  the  record  of 
these  great  humane  movements,  showing  how  the  art 
of  education  has  been  perfected  through  successive 
failures  and  successes,  is  certainly  the  most  instructive 
page  of  human  history.  The  great  need  of  teachers 
is  vision,  broad  and  accurate ;  a  discriminating  outlook 
upon  the  drama  of  existence  as  it  portrays  the  strug- 
gles of  the  race  upwards  towards   the   light.     Each 


THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS  25 

age  of  the  world  iias  verified  Plato's  Allegory  of  the 
Cavern.  The  race  has  been  saved  by  a  remnant,  but 
the  consoling  fact  is  that  this  remnant  has  grown 
steadily  larger,  and  we  may  hope  that  finally  aU  men 
will  turn  their  faces  to  the  light,  and  that  the  cavern 
of  ignorance  and  bigotry  will  become  tenantless.  A 
just  historical  perspective  will  make  us  optimistic,  will 
give  us  poise,  will  make  us  courageous,  and  will  arm 
OS  with  the  moral  power  and  resolution  of  the  race. 
In  one  of  his  moments  of  inspiration  Rousseau  ex- 
claimed, '^  A  teacher!  What  a  noble  soul  he  ought 
to  be !  "  To  teachers  of  this  sort,  to  teachers  worthy 
of  the  name,  the  kindly  light  coming  from  the  history 
of  education  is  worth  a  whole  library  of  '  *  devices. ' ' 
Rightly  conceived  and  rightly  taught,  this  is  a  culture 
subject  of  the  highest  type,  while  at  the  same  time  its 
practical  bearings  are  of  hourly  value.  A  certain 
style  of  school  building,  once  in  vogue,  was  con- 
demned and  abandoned  fifty  years  ago  by  the  wisest 
school  men  of  the  country;  but  strange  to  say  this 
abandoned  plan  is  still  copied  in  expensive  structures 
to  the  discomfort  of  pupils  and  the  waste  of  public 
funds.  Without  a  knowledge  of  the  successes  and 
failures  in  school  administration,  it  is  easy  to  miss 
what  is  best  in  current  practice,  and  quite  possible  to 


u-^ 


26  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

rediscover  abandoned  systems  and  methods.  A  con^ 
stitutional  cure  for  fads  would  be  the  historical  spec- 
tacle of  the  wrecks  and  ruins  thickly  strewn  along  the 
path  of  educational  experiment ;  for  all  along  the  ages 
education  has  been  experimental  science,  and  what 
remains  in  the  best  current  practice  is  the  survival  of 
the  fittest,  the  small  residue  out  of  many  ambitious 
systems  and  projects.  When  one  becomes  enamored 
of  a  fad,  it  would  be  a  wholesome  caution  to  recall 
De  "Witt  Clinton's  premature  apotheosis  of  Lancaster 
and  Bell.  Both  for  culture  and  for  guidance,  a 
teacher  should  be  ' '  the  spectator  of  all  time  ' '  in  the 
field  of  educational  history. 

In  respect  of  scholarship  in  the  narrower  sense  of 
the  term,  in  a  knowledge  of  the  subjects  to  be  taught, 
the  normal  schools  supported  by  the  State  have  always 
been  true  to  the  best  traditions.  They  have  uniformly 
aimed  at  thoroughness  and  have  never  disgraced  sound 
learning  by  a  profitable  resort  to  expeditious  methods. 

No  risk  is  incurred  in  declaring  that  in  the  high  and 
legitimate  sense  of  the  term  the  college  and  the  uni- 
versity of  the  future  will  be  of  the  normal  type ;  that 
is,  their  avowed  purpose  will  be  to  educate  men  and 
women,  not  to  be  mainly  useful  to  themselves  and 
their  families  by  the  gathering  of  wealth  and  renown, 


THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS  2T 

but  to  become  living  factors  in  the  education  of  the 
race.  Education  is  becoming  more  and  more  an  ethnic 
problem ;  the  conception  is  growing  that  the  supreme 
aim  of  living  in  this  world  is  the  perfection  of  the 
race;  that  in  an  active  and  real  sense  all  men  and 
women  must  become  educators;  and  that  the  main 
and  particular  purpose  of  the  higher  institutions  of 
learning  is  to  prepare  students  for  the  work  of  elevat- 
ing and  perfecting  the  race.  Perhaps  in  an  uncon- 
scious way  the  universities  of  the  age  are  now  moving 
towards  this  larger  conception.  The  chairs  of  educa- 
tion established  in  so  many  of  them  serve  a  high  pur- 
pose for  the  general  student,  as  well  as  a  special 
purpose  for  the  student  who  expects  to  teach.  It  will 
ultimately  appear  that  their  largest  following  will  be 
from  students  who  are  in  quest  of  a  liberal  education. 
In  other  words,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  the  uni- 
versity of  the  future  will  be  modeled  after  the  con- 
ception so  happily  expressed  by  Herbert  Spencer: 
''The  subject  which  involves  all  other  subjects^  and 
therefore  the  subject  in  which  the  education  of  eoery 
one  should  culminate^  is  the  Theory  a/nd  Practice  of 
Education  y 

It  will  be  the  aim  of  the  student,  through  religion, 
through  history,  through  literature,  through  science, 


28         THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS 

to  epitomize  and  embody  in  himself  the  net  attain- 
ments of  the  race  in  virtue,  in  discipline,  in  learning, 
in  culture,  and  all  to  the  end  that  he  may  be  an  agent 
in  the  education  and  perfection  of  human  society. 
The  golden  age  of  the  world  is  to  be  the  age  that  is 
most  wisely  and  wholly  devoted  to  the  betterment  of 
humanity ;  in  that  age  all  men  and  all  women  will  be 
either  teachers  or  educators,  and  all  schools  will  be 
avowedly  normal  in  spirit  and  purpose. 

'  'And  the  law  giver  will  appoint  guardians  :  some 
who  walk  by  intelligence,  and  others  by  true  opinion 
only."  In  this  quotation  Plato  marks  the  distinction 
between  guidance  that  proceeds  from  the  interpreta- 
tion of  a  principle,  and  guidance  that  proceeds  from 
the  application  of  a  rule.  As  teaching  has  to  do  with 
spirit,  and  as  spirit  is  multiform  in  the  modes  of  its 
operation,  education  is  a  free  or  liberal  art  whose 
practice  requires  that  versatility  which  springs  from  a 
broad  intelligence  and  from  a  comprehensive  knowl- 
edge of  general  principles.  It  cannot  be  too  often 
repeated  that  teaching  bears  no  likeness  to  the  me- 
chanic arts  where  rigid  rules  and  exact  measurements 
are  required.  It  is  even  doubtful  whether  procedure 
by   fixed   rule   is  ever  permissible  in  real  teaching. 


THE    EDUCATION    OF 


tiSACHJERS^  29 


In  our  dealings  with  spirit  all  analogies  drawn  from 
the  manipulations  of  matter  are  full  of  mischief. 

In  all  the  arts  that  deal  with  the  imponderable,  the 
free  or  liberal  arts,  procedure  by  fixed  rule  is  impossi- 
ble ;  the  utmost  and  the  best  that  can  be  done  in  the  way 
of  preparation  for  the  practice  of  these  arts  is  a  clear 
comprehension  of  general  principles.  A  school  that 
should  propose  to  teach  the  art  of  statesmanship 
would  be  laughed  out  of  existence  in  a  month. 
Neither  journalism,  oratory,  nor  literature,  can  be 
taught  as  an  art,  as  a  system  of  processes.  Each  man 
must  construct  his  own  art  out  of  his  fund  of  intelli- 
gence and  out  of  the  special  requirements  of  time, 
place,  and  circumstance.  In  medicine,  no  one  but  a 
quack  follows  a  fixed  rule  of  practice.  In  his  college 
the  physician  learns  the  science  of  medicine  and  out 
of  general  principles  he  draws  his  art,  in  each  case 
modifying  his  practice  to  suit  temperament,  age  and 
sex.  He  will  have  as  many  arts  as  he  has  patients. 
In  the  practice  of  the  law  the  same  thing  is  true.  In 
the  law  school  the  student  learns  a  science,  and  when 
he  comes  to  practice  he  will  have  as  many  arts  as  he 
has  cases.  In  the  practice  of  teaching  the  relation  of 
art  to  science  is  the  same  as  in  the  instances  just  cited. 
In  his  professional  school  the  teacher  should  learn  a 


30  THE    EDUCATION   OF    TEACHERS 

science,  out  of  which,  on  the  occasion  of  experience, 
he  should  construct  his  art.  The  texture  and  character 
of  this  art  will  depend  on  the  net  personality  of  the 
teacher,  on  the  quality  of  the  science  he  has  learned, 
on  the  character  and  disposition  of  his  pupils,  and  even 
on  the  environment  of  his  school ;  so  that  there  will 
be  as  many  arts  of  teaching  as  there  are  teachers,  even 
as  many  as  there  are  pupils. 

Whether  a  science  can  be  turned  into  a  successful  art 
will  of  course  depend  in  the  main  on  the  intelligence 
of  the  teacher.  Some  men  cannot  learn  a  science, 
and  some  men,  having  learned  a  science,  are  incompe- 
tent to  convert  it  into  an  art.  We  may  suppose  that 
many  teachers  stand  in  this  case.  What  are  they  to 
do?  Manifestly  if  one  is  stupid  and  must  teach,  he 
will  do  better  with  rules  than  he  could  do  without 
them ;  but  such  a  man  has  mistaken  his  calling ;  he 
should  be  drawing  water  or  hewing  wood.  A  turn 
of  the  political  wheel  may  put  a  stupid  man  in  a  posi- 
tion where  statesmanship  is  required,  and  if  he  must 
act,  it  will  be  better  for  him  to  follow  a  blind  rule 
than  to  follow  his  mere  caprices  or  guesses ;  but  such 
a  man  has  no  call  to  play  at  statesmanship ;  he  should 
follow  some  vocation  compatible  with  his  stupidity. 

In  order  to  be  readily  convertible  into  an  art,  a 


THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS  31 

science  should  not  be  composed  of  ultimate  principles, 
but  of  wbat  logicians  call  axiomata  media^  or  middle 
principles,  that  stand  between  the  broadest  generaliza- 
tion and  the  narrower  empirical  rules.  To  say  that 
education  is  life  may  in  some  occult  or  metaphysical 
sense  be  true,  but  it  is  a  formula  so  void  of  meaning, 
so  remote  from  experience,  that  it  is  a  mere  philo- 
sophic or  poetic  ornament ;  it  can  be  converted  into 
no  utility.  Psychology  readily  shades  off  into  meta- 
physics, or  the  search  for  ultimate  causes,  and  finally 
loses  itself  in  that  region  of  obscurity  which  is  so  con- 
genial to  speculative  minds.  When  psychology  has 
reached  that  state  it  is  worthless  for  a  teacher's  use. 
As  a  teacher  must  himself  be  sane,  his  science  must 
be  sane  also.  Muddiness  is  often  mifitaken  for  depth. 
A  statement  may  be  profound,  yet  clear.  Any  state- 
ment that  is  not  clear,  that  cannot  be  interpreted  by 
the  intelligence,  should  be  cancelled  from  the  teacher's 
science. 

Education  is  a  derived  or  composite  science  drawing 
its  matter  chiefly  from  religion,  ethics,  sociology,  psy- 
chology and  logic.  Teaching,  for  the  most  part,  is 
an  applied  psychology  and  logic,  but  education  derives 
its  inspiration  and  aim  from  the  other  sciences  named. 
In  one  very  important  department,  as  yet  without  a 


32  THE    EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

name,  the  science  of  education  has  matter  all  its  own, 
matter  not  derived  from  any  other  science.  It  is  that 
department  which  discusses  and  determines  the  educa- 
tion value  of  studies.  The  discussion  of  these  values 
is  as  old  as  Plato's  philosophy  and  as  new  as  Herbert 
Spencer's,  while  between  come  contributions  from 
Kabelais,  Montaigne,  Locke,  Bacon,  Hamilton,  Whe- 
weD,  and  Bain.  Ultimately  we  shall  have  within  the 
great  science  itself  a  science  of  values,  a  sort  of  materia 
medica  of  the  teaching  art,  and  until  this  step  has  been 
taken  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  any  further  rational  pro- 
gress can  be  made  in  the  art  of  human  education.  It 
is  just  as  important  for  a  teacher  to  know  the  education 
value  of  literature  as  for  a  physician  to  know  the  thera- 
peutic value  of  quinine.  Under  the  conception  that 
education  is  a  process  of  growth  taking  place  through 
nurture  and  exercise,  studies  become  foods  and  disci- 
plines, and  to  prescribe  them  wisely  one  needs  to  know 
their  several  values. 

Method  may  be  defined  as  a  mode  of  procedure 
based  on  some  principle  or  law.  Divorced  from  the 
principle  which  justifies  it,  a  method  becomes  a  rule, 
and  rules  are  the  bane  of  teaching.  This  statement 
will  make  clear  the  objection  that  has  been  urged 
against  the  practice  current  in  many  normal  schools  of 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS        33 

making  the  main  part  of  its  professional  instruction 
consist  of  methods  and  devices  to  the  neglect  of  schol- 
arship and  science.  Freedom,  versatility,  variety, 
adaptation,  are  pedagogic  virtues  of  the  first  order ; 
but  there  is  no  freedom  in  mere  method,  in  method 
isolated  from  the  principle  that  underlies  it.  Freedom 
is  to  be  found  in  some  large  truth,  in  some  principle 
that  includes  many  instances  and  so  suggests  many 
applications.  The  science  of  mechanics  comprises 
only  one  or  two  general  principles,  but  these  princi- 
ples include  an  infinite  number  of  instances  and  so 
admit  of  a  countless  number  of  applications.  It  has 
been  well  said  that  nothing  is  so  uniform  as  ignorance. 
The  uniformities  of  rule  invariably  lead  to  routine, 
and  routine  destroys  the  life  of  teaching.  The  only 
uniformity  that  can  be  desired  in  method  is  typical 
uniformity,  that  is,  likeness  to  a  type  or  class,  and  not 
to  an  individual  of  a  class.  The  general  principle  that 
perception  begins  with  masses  and  then  descends  to 
parts,  gives  rise  to  that  method  in  reading  which  pre- 
sents words  before  letters,  or  sentences  before  words ; 
but  twenty  good  teachers  of  reading  may  follow  this 
general  principle  and  each  may  introduce  into  her 
practice  some  modification  or  variety  that  will  make 
twenty  methods  in  the  aggregate,  but  they  will  all  be 


34  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

correct  methods  because  they  all  conform  to  one  ra- 
tional type.  In  a  company  of  ladies  there  may  be  a 
hundred  costumes,  each  reflecting  the  taste  and  per- 
sonality of  the  individual  wearer,  but  all  conforming 
to  one  type  or  style.  Even  so  every  real  teacher  will 
introduce  into  her  methods  something  of  her  own  per- 
sonality, but  at  the  same  time  they  will  agree  in  type 
with  the  methods  of  other  teachers  who  follow  the 
same  general  principle. 

Whether  a  teacher's  methods  shall  be  inspiring  and 
creative,  or  obstructive  and  deadening,  will  depend 
on  whether,  to  borrow  Carlyle's  imagery,  he  is  a  live 
coal,  or  a  dead  cinder ;  and  it  is  necessary  to  be  kept 
in  mind  that  in  some  way  a  student  must  be  trans- 
formed into  a  quickening  spirit  before  he  can  become 
a  real  teacher.  In  a  school  devoted  to  the  education 
of  teachers  there  must  be  a  prevalent  spirit  provoca- 
tive of  high  moral  aims,  devotion  to  duty  and  love 
of  the  scholarly  vocation.  This  spirit  should  be  so 
prevalent  and  so  tonic  as  to  form  the  vital  breath  of 
every  learner;  it  should  proceed,  not  from  one  in- 
structor, but  from  all ;  and  it  should  be  so  effective 
that  it  can  be  felt  as  a  living,  vitalizing  power  where- 
ever  students  congregate — in  chapel,  in  classrooms,  in 
lecture  halls,  in  art   rooms,  in  library,  everywhere. 


THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS  35 

By  virtue  of  this  indefinable  but  real  spirit  some 
schools  predispose  their  students  to  scholarly  habits,  to 
sobriety  and  refinement  of  manners,  to  beneficent  pur- 
poses, to  noble  ambitions ;  and  this  spiritual  tuition  is 
infinitely  better  than  mere  drill,  learning,  or  method, 
and  must  certainly  acaompany  them  if  education  is  to 
be  a  transforming  and  perfecting  power.  If  the  term 
enthusiasm  had  not  lost  its  primitive  and  noble  mean- 
ing it  might  sufiice  to  say  that  all  real  teaching  must 
be  pervaded  by  enthusiasm ;  but  it  is  now  better  to 
say  that  all  real  teachers  must  be  inspired,  in  the  same 
sense  that  biblical  teachers  and  prophets  were  inspired ; 
that  education  will  fall  sadly  short  of  its  transforming 
and  creative  power  unless  it  is  accompanied  by  a  cer- 
taiu  noble  ardor  and  elevation  of  spirit,  unless  it  affects 
the  noble  passions  and  emotions  of  the  learner.  Edu- 
cation is  shorn  of  more  than  half  its  power  when  it  is 
addressed  to  the  head  to  the  exclusion  of  the  heart. 
An  educated  man  is  not  a  mere  intellectual  gymnast 
with  a  large  endowment  of  solid  learning,  but  a  man 
whose  emotional  and  intellectual  powers  have  been 
duly  trained  and  brought  into  just  equipoise ;  a  man 
who  can  not  only  think,  reason  and  discern,  but  can 
love,  admire  and  worship ;  who  can  recognize  beauty 
as  well  as  truth,  whose  highest  motives  are  feelings 


36  THE    EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

tempered  with  reason.  It  is  in  such  an  atmosphere  as 
this  that  a  teacher  should  be  educated.  Nothing  less 
stimulating  will  serve  the  noble  purpose  of  his  calling. 

In  the  way  of  facilities  for  instruction  in  science, 
literature  and  art,  the  best  is  not  good  enough  for  a 
school  whose  high  mission  is  the  education  of  teachers. 
A  good  laboratory,  a  good  library  and  a  good  art  gal- 
lery should  therefore  be  thought  indispensable  adjuncts 
to  a  normal  school.  The  world  of  matter  is  to  be 
interpreted,  the  world  of  letters  is  to  renew  the  moral 
life,  the  world  of  beauty  is  to  be  revealed  and  ad- 
mired, and  unless  these  three  worlds  make  large  con 
tributions  to  the  teacher's  equipment  he  has  not  made 
the  investments  which  become  his  high  office. 

"While,  through  delicacy  of  feeling  and  breadth  of 
intellectual  vision,  a  teacher  should  be  responsive  to 
the  spirit  of  his  age,  he  should  be  wisely  conservative 
in  his  opinions  and  policy.  In  no  other  department 
of  human  activity  should  the  maxim  nihil  per  saltum 
be  so  rigorously  construed.  Both  as  a  process  and  a 
policy  education  is  a  growth,  and  the  margin  between 
the  work  of  today  and  the  attempt  of  to-morrow 
should  be  a  narrow  one.  What  we  now  have  in  theory 
and  practice  is  the  net  product  of  the  best  thought 
and  truest  effort  of  the  psist  \  that  it  is  radically  wrong 


THE    EDUCATION    C    TEACHERS  37 

is  inconceivable.  Education  should  be  progressive,  but 
this  progress  should  be  along  historical  lines.  The 
future  should  be  a  logical  evolution  out  of  the  past 
and  the  present.  In  this  domain  revolution  is  treason. 
To  be  swayed  about  by  every  wind  of  doctrine  is  the 
mark  of  an  unsound  mind.  To  be  absorbed  in  new 
and  doubtful  experiments  is  to  betray  a  sacred  trust. 
Innocent  children  should  be  shielded  from  the  experi- 
ments of  callow  teachers  who  would  use  them  as 
material  for  their  ' '  laboratories. "  It  is  appalling  to 
think  that  the  normal  schools  of  the  country  should 
send  out  into  society  relays  of  half  educated  teachers 
devoted  to  the  exploitation  of  fads,  and  bent  on  revo- 
lution under  the  name  of  progress.  The  policy  of 
such  schools  should  be  a  progressive  conservatism. 
They  should  encourage  a  hearty  respect  for  the  past 
and  its  legacies,  and  should  at  the  same  time  create  an 
aspiration  for  a  better  future.  '  'All  the  centuries  of  a 
nation  are  the  leaves  of  one  and  the  same  book.  The 
true  men  of  progress  are  they  who  have  for  point 
of  departure  a  profound  respect  for  the  past.  All 
that  we  do,  all  that  we  are,  is  the  outcome  of  secular 
toil."* 

The  moral  world  is  passing  through  a  process  of 

*Renan,  Souvenirs,  XXILXXIIL 


38        THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS 

peaceful  transformation  which  is  to  end,  we  may 
believe,  in  a  state  of  society  that  is  perfect  in  its  kind. 
This  process  of  transformation  is  education  in  its 
catholic  and  proper  sense.  Those  who  are  charged 
with  this  supreme  mission  are  the  world's  teachers; 
to  be  fit  for  this  high  service  their  own  education 
must  be  catholic,  wholesome  and  conservative. 


WHOLESOME  CULTURE 


II 

WHOLESOME  CULTUEE 

I  FIND  a  fitting  introduction  to  whai  I  wish  to  say 
in  this  chapter,  in  the  following  quotation  from  an 
editorial  in  the  New  York  Tribune^  on  the  then  re- 
cent death  of  Professor  Lincoln,  of  Brown  University : 

*  *  Professor  Lincoln,  who  was  buried  in  Providence 
yesterday,  after  half  a  century  of  active  service  in 
Brown  University,  received  during  his  closing  years 
a  unique  testimonial  of  the  affection  and  respect  of  his 
pupils.  A  fund  of  $100,000  was  raised  by  the  alumni 
of  the  college,  from  which  he  was  to  draw  an  annuity 
while  he  lived,  and  which  was  to  be  a  standing  memo- 
rial of  his  work.  It  was  a  remarkable  tribute  paid  to 
one  of  the  really  great  educators  of  New  England, 
and  attested  the  personal  appreciation  of  a  large  body 
of  students  who  had  drawn  inspiration  from  his  no- 
bility of  character,  liis  devotion  to  good  letters  and 
his  thoroughness  and  enlightened  methods  as  a  teacher. 
Many  college  professors  there  are  who  do  faithful  work 
in  their  time,  and  here  and  there  will  be  one  whose 
memory  will  be  perpetuated  after  death  by  the  endow- 


42  WHOLESOME   CULTURE 

ment  of  a  new  chair,  or  the  naming  of  an  additional 
building  on  the  campus ;  but  it  is  almost  an  unprece- 
dented thing  for  a  body  of  alumni  representing  the 
graduating  classes  of  fifty  years  to  unite  with  enthusi- 
asm in  providing  the  memorial  in  the  honored  old  age 
of  the  teacher. 

' '  The  glory  of  the  medigeval  universities  was  trans- 
sitory,  their  reputation  and  popularity  depending  upon 
great  teachers  who  rallied  throngs  of  students  around 
them.  One  man  would  make  a  school  of  learning 
famous,  and  while  he  lived  and  taught,  the  lecture 
halls  would  be  crowded  with  sympathetic  youths 
touched  by  the  fire  of  his  earnestness.  "When  lie  died 
the  university  would  languish  and  a  rival  school  with 
another  great  teacher  would  draw  upon  its  resources. 
Modern  colleges  are  educational  machines  with  too 
many  cogs  and  wheels  to  receive  the  impulse  of  a 
single  will.  One  man  cannot  now  make  a  university 
as  in  mediaeval  times ;  but  an  educator  of  noble  im- 
pulses and  an  overmastering  love  of  what  is  immortal 
in  literature  can  still  be  a  tremendous  force  in  mflu- 
encing  the  labors  of  colleagues  and  in  directing  and 
quickening  the  aspirations  of  students.  What  Arnold 
was  at  Rugby,  Lincoln  was  at  Brown,  during  his  lialf- 
century  of  laborious  service.     Every  associate  in  ad- 


WHOLESOME   CULTURE  43 

joining  class  rooms  felt  the  stimulus  of  his  enthusiasm 
for  study,  and  was  sobered  by  his  sense  of  responsi- 
bility in  training  young  men  for  useful  work  in  the 
world.  Every  student  breathed  in  his  lecture  room  a 
higher  atmosphere  than  could  be  found  anywhere  else. 
There  was  no  force  in  the  old  college  of  Roger  Wil- 
liams' state  so  ennobling  and  so  invigorating  as  the 
example  and  influence  of  this  warm-hearted  and  full- 
minded  Latin  professor. 

* '  Educators,  as  the  world  grows  older,  seem  to  ac- 
quire technique  and  finish  without  gaining  creative  or 
informing  power.  There  is  perfection  of  system  and 
elaboration  of  method,  but  how  rare  it  is  to  find  in 
school  or  in  college,  teachers  of  the  type  of  Arnold 
and  Lincoln  endowed  with  the  incomparable  gift  of 
inspiring  enthusiasm  for  learning  and  good  letters! 
To  read  Horace's  ' ' Ars  Poetica"  or  Goethe's  ''Faust" 
under  Lincoln  was  something  more  than  to  master  the 
grammatical  difliculties  of  a  language.  It  was,  in 
Byron's  phrase,  ''to  feel,  not  understand  the  lyric 
flow,"  to  study  not  the  mechanism,  but  the  spirit  of  a 
literature,  and  to  be  conscious  of  coming  into  close 
communion  with  intellectual  genius.  The  graduates 
of  the  classes  in  University  Hall  may  have  forgotten 
their  rules  of  Latin  syntax  and  prosody  and  have  mis- 


44  THE   EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

laid  their  German  accent;  but  whatever  ardor  they 
may  retain  for  orderly  processes  of  study  or  whatever 
love  they  may  have  for  what  is  ennobling  in  literature, 
bears  the  impress  of  the  hand  and  heart  of  Lincoln." 

What  I  admire  in  this  quotation  is  the  thought  that 
the  powpr  of  a  teacher  lies  in  his  worth  as  a  man 
rather  than  in  his  skill  as  a  drillmaster,  and  that  his 
title  to  a  grateful  remembrance  will  at  last  be  found 
in  those  services  which  were  inspired  by  sympathy  and 
affection,  rather  than  in  the  conscious  additions  which 
have  been  made  to  the  pupil's  knowledge.  At  least 
the  half,  and  perhaps  the  better  half,  of  education 
consists  in  the  formation  of  right  feelings.  The  great 
mobiles  to  action  are  the  emotions.  He  who  teaches 
us  to  look  out  upon  the  world  through  eyes  of  affec- 
tion, sympathy,  charity  and  good  will,  has  done  more 
for  us  and  for  society  than  he  who  may  have  taught 
us  the  seven  liberal  arts.  Good  teaching,  like  good 
preaching  or  good  oratory,  must  be  persuasive.  It 
not  only  sets  forth  truth  in  a  clearer  light,  but  will 
invest  truth  with  a  warm  halo  of  feeling. 

The  school  should  be  strong  in  the  affections  of  its 
students.  After  they  have  left  it  their  thoughts  ought 
to  turn  back  to  the  scenes  of  their  school  life,  to  places, 
persons  and  associations,  with  that  fondness,  affection, 


WHOLESOME    CULTURE  45 

and  reverence  which  children  ever  feel  for  the  homes 

of  their  childhood.  The  jonng  Alexander  loved 
Philip,  his  father,  but  Aristotle,  his  teacher,  was  even 
dearer  to  him.  The  most  affecting  incident  in  ' '  Tom 
Brown  at  Rugby"  is  the  boy's  return  to  the  old 
Chapel,  and  there  alone  and  in  silence,  his  heart  heav- 
ing with  emotion,  kneeling  at  the  tomb  of  the  beloved 
Doctor.  The  attachments  which  a  student  feels  for 
his  Alma  Mater  are  emotional,  not  intellectual ;  they 
relate,  not  to  what  he  has  learned,  but  to  what  he  has 
felt.  I  have  seen  gray-haired  men  return  to  their 
university  after  years  of  absence ;  but  the  places  they 
visited,  the  places  to  which  they  are  attached,  are  not 
the  lecture  rooms,  but  the  old  trees  under  whose  shade 
they  once  lounged  and  chatted,  and  the  playgrounds 
which  once  witnessed  the  friendly  ardor  of  their 
boyish  encounters;  and  the  names  which  they  most 
fondly  call  up  are  not  those  of  their  drillmasters  but 
of  those  whom  they  learned  to  love  for  their  good 
offices  and  amiable  qualities.  The  heart  of  Mary 
Lyon  has  immortalized  Mount  Holyoke,  and  to-day 
her  beautiful  spirit  is  reflected  from  the  faces  of 
thousands  who  are  reproducing  her  devotion  and 
good  works.  At  intervals  during  my  professional  life 
I  have  met  gray-haired  men  and  women  who  were 


4:6  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

students  of  the  Albany  E^ormal  School  in  the  days  of 
its  greatest  glory,  and  in  the  heart  of  each  there  was 
a  shrine  sacred  to  the  memory  of  David  Page,  and  the 
immortality  of  this  great  teacher  is  due,  not  to  his 
intellect,  great  as  it  was,  and  not  to  his  methods,  good 
as  they  were,  but  to  the  humanity,  to  the  heart,  that 
was  in  him.  The  world  is  to  be  redeemed,  not  by 
change  of  intellect,  but  by  change  of  heart ;  the  real 
leaven  of  society  is  charity  and  good  will,  not  logic, 
not  even  liberty  and  justice.  If  students  are  to  put 
this  better  spirit  into  the  world  they  must  put  it  into 
their  work ;  if  it  goes  into  their  work  it  must  come 
from  their  lives,  and  their  lives  must  borrow  it  from 
other  lives  that  have  been  touched  and  transformed 
by  it. 

We  have  all  heard  music  that  was  wonderful  in 
technique,  but  void  of  soul.  It  exhibited  the  com- 
pass and  power  of  the  instrument,  and  the  trained 
deftness  of  eye  and  finger,  but  as  it  did  not  proceed 
from  the  heart  it  did  not  touch  the  heart.  It  was  not 
music,  but  noise  scientifically  and  laboriously  produced. 
The  intellect,  while  ' '  a  cold  logical  engine, ' '  may  dis- 
cover truth,  but  only  an  intellect  warmed  by  the  heart 
can  make  truth  lovable  and  therefore  persuasive  and 
conquering.    There  is  something  to  admire  in  the  cold 


WHOLESOME    CULTURE  47 

exactness  with  which  truth  is  proclaimed  from  the  ros- 
trum, but  if  this  truth  is  not  mixed  in  due  proportion 
with  feeling,  there  can  be  no  real  oratory,  for  there 
can  be  no  persuasion. 

Goldsmith  described  the  good  village  preacher  as 
one  who  ''lured  to  brighter  worlds  and  led  the  way"  ; 
with  scarcely  a  turn  in  the  thought  this  is  a  happy  de- 
scription of  the  good  teacher.  It  was  Plato  who  said 
that  "  we  do  not  readily  learn  from  a  teacher  whom 
we  do  not  love ' ' ;  and  it  is  certain  that  all  the  great 
teachers  of  the  world  have  been  men  of  humane 
instincts,  of  warm  sympathies  and  ardent  affections, 
and  have  owed  their  immortality  quite  as  much  to  a 
responsive  heart  as  to  a  sound  head.  It  is  a  sad  day 
for  education  when  the  belief  prevails  that  it  is  only 
the  head  which  should  enter  into  the  service  of  the 
teacher,  and  that  a  deep  emotional  nature  is  a  source 
of  weakness  rather  than  of  strength.  Other  things 
being  equal,  he  is  the  best  teacher  to  whom  pupils 
most  readily  turn  for  consolation  and  direction  in 
sorrow  or  misfortune.  There  is  something  gravely 
wrong  in  that  teacher,  whether  man  or  woman,  who 
gains  no  other  feeling  in  his  pupil's  heart  than  mere 
respect. 

The  tendency  of  professional  life  is  to  break  men 


^ 


»U 


48  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

up  into  fragments,  to  employ  one  set  of  faculties  or 
activities  while  suffering  the  unused  members  to  lan- 
guish or  perish,  and  thus  to  mar  the  original  whole- 
ness of  our  nature  and  so  rob  our  service  of  its  normal 
quality.  It  should  be  the  whole  man  who  preaches, 
teaches,  pleads,  plows,  spins,  or  sings,  and  we  sin 
against  our  better  nature  and  powers  when  we  allow 
any  form  of  specialization  to  destroy,  or  even  mar, 
the  beautiful  wholeness  or  wholesomeness  of  our  origi- 
nal creation. 

All  who  are  engaged  in  school  work  may  profitably 
reflect  on  the  dangers  of  specialization,  for  the  direct 
tendency  is  to  exalt  the  instrument  at  the  expense  of 
the  man.  ' '  Who  is  that  gentleman  yonder  ?  ' '  said 
a  traveler  to  a  stranger  whom  he  met  on  the  highway. 
''That,  sir,  is  not  a  gentleman,"  said  the  stranger, 
' '  but  a  grammarian,  and  I  am  a  logician. ' ' 

Nothing  more  is  intended  in  these  remarks  than  to 
point  out  the  dangers  that  beset  every  man  who  be- 
comes addicted  to  a  special  pursuit  or  to  a  special 
study.  Every  profession,  trade,  or  calling  is  narrow- 
ing in  its  tendency  and  will  infallibly  dwarf  the  man 
who  follows  it  unless  he  finds  relief  in  some  breadth- 
giving  pursuit  that  is  alien  to  his  special  vocation.  A 
sinister  consequence  of  this  tendency  when  not  thus 


WHOLESOME    CULTURE  49 

checked  is  to  betray  us  into  false  judgments  concerning 
other  pursuits  and  other  branches  of  learning.  We 
must  all  specialize  our  pursuits  by  the  intensity  of  our 
devotion  to  them,  but  in  some  way  we  must  make 
ourselves  so  catholic  in  our  sympathies  that  we  shall 
be  able  to  give  a  hearty  welcome  to  the  favorite  pur 
suits  of  other  men.  One  of  my  venerated  colleagues 
in  the  University  of  Michigan  was  an  acute  metaphy- 
sician. While  in  his  library  one  morning  I  observed 
that  among  his  books  were  the  latest  and  best  treatises 
on  physics  and  biology.  When  I  expressed  surprise 
at  this  anomaly,  his  quick  response  was:  ''Do  you 
imagine  that  I  am  content  to  be  merely  a  dried  up 
metaphysician?"  He  had  learned  the  happy  art  of 
reconciling  breadth  with  depth. 

As  the  school  proposes  to  train  men  and  women — 
gentlemen  and  ladies — rather  than  grammarians  and 
logicians,  it  is  of  the  first  importance  that  those  who 
teach  should  be  men  and  women  in  this  catholic  and 
wholesome  sense.  I  feel  sure  that  my  words  will  not 
be  misconstrued  when  I  say  that  a  teacher's  usefulness 
diminishes  in  proportion  as  he  sinks  into  a  mere  spe- 
cialist, but  that  the  prime  quality  of  an  instructor  is 
breadth  of  intellectual  vision  and  of  scholarly  attain- 
ments.    I  have  mingled  somewhat  with  college  men 

4 


60  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

and  have  been  an  observer  of  their  opinions  and  ways, 
but  I  have  only  very  rarely  seen  a  specialist  who  had 
any  respect  for  any  specialty  save  his  own.  In  the 
main  most  college  fends  and  jealousies  have  their 
origin  in  this  narrowing  of  the  intellectual  perspective, 
in  this  contraction  of  the  intellectual  horizon ;  and  so 
it  has  come  to  pass  that  seats  of  liberal  learning  are 
sometimes  occupied  by  men  of  the  most  illiberal  spirit. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  extension  of  our  sympathies 
to  subjects  and  pursuits  different  from  and  perhaps 
remote  from  our  own  as  a  necessary  condition  for  high 
service  in  a  school ;  and  I  now  wish  to  speak  approv- 
ingly of  another  extension  of  sympathy  and  aims  which 
is  even  more  important.  My  acquaintance  with  col- 
leges and  college  men  has  led  me  to  another  observa- 
tion— that  in  many  cases  the  instructor's  interest  in  the 
pupil  ceases  the  moment  the  recitation  period  is  over ; 
that  the  instances  are  rare  in  which  students  think  of 
their  teachers  in  any  other  light  than  that  of  drill- 
masters  ;  and  that  it  is  only  in  exceptional  cases  that 
they  are  held  in  afiectionate  and  grateful  remembrance 
as  friends,  advisers  and  guides.  I  believe  that  this  is 
the  highest  standard  by  which  a  school  or  teacher  can 
be  tried. 

It  is  well  to  recollect  that  a  student  does  not  present 


WHOLESOME    CULTURE  61 

himself  to  his  several  instructors  in  fractions,  bringing 
the  logical  faculty  into  one  class  room,  the  aesthetic 
into  another,  the  reminiscent  into  a  third,  etc.,  but 
that  all  the  powers  of  the  mind  are  present  and  in 
waiting,  and  that  it  is  but  the  semblance  of  teaching 
which  addresses  itself  to  but  one  mode  of  mental  ac- 
tivitj.  It  is  perhaps  even  more  important  to  remem- 
ber that  the  student  brings  with  him  his  susceptibility 
of  feeling  as  well  as  his  capacity  for  thinking — that 
he  can  be  hurt  by  harshness  and  unkindness,  and 
helped  by  courtesy  and  gentle  speech.  The  root  and 
basis  of  character  is  in  the  heart,  in  the  depths  of  the 
sensative  and  emotional  nature ;  hence  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  character-building  in  teaching  which  does  not 
address  itself  to  the  heart  as  well  as  to  the  head. 

It  is  a  mistaken  uotion  that  there  is  something  pro- 
fessional in  an  icy  dignity,  in  rude  speech,  in  uncouth 
manners,  and  in  austere  if  not  unkind  reproof.  Any- 
thing that  distinguishes  the  teacher  from  the  gentle- 
man or  the  lady  is  an  evidence  of  unfitness  for  this 
high  office ;  but  the  gentleman  is  first  of  all  a  gentle 
man,  courteous,  kind,  considerate,  respectful,  especi- 
ally in  his  dealings  with  those  who  by  age,  position, 
or  acquirement,  are  his  inferiors.     Multa  rever&ntia 


62  THE    EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

pueris  dehitur  is  a  very  old  but  a  very  wise  saying : 
great  reverence  is  due  the  young. 

So  far  as  equipment  goes,  scholarship,  wide  and 
thorough,  must  be  regarded  as  the  teacher's  mainstay; 
he  must  be  a  man  of  learning  if  he  would  secure  and 
hold  the  respect  and  confidence  of  his  constituents  and 
patrons,  and  even  of  his  pupils,  and  without  this  re- 
spect and  confidence  he  can  maintain  no  professional 
standing,  and  is  likely  to  abandon  a  calling  in  which 
success  requires  attainments  that  he  does  not  possess. 
If  public  education  is  to  prosper  there  must  be  a  per- 
manent teaching  class  with  well  defined  traditions, 
rights,  prerogatives,  and  duties,  and  the  members  of 
this  class  must  not  only  maintain  their  own  seK- 
respect,  but  must  secure  public  respect;  they  must 
constitute  one  of  the  learned  professions  and  as  such 
must  inherit  and  transmit  all  that  is  implied  in  pro- 
fessional spirit  and  standing.  I  sharply  distinguish 
teachers  of  this  class  from  accidental,  provisional,  or 
non-professional  teachers,  those  who  teach  for  a  term 
or  a  year  through  caprice  or  necessity,  without  any 
special  competency,  and  then  pass  to  some  regular 
employment.  Money  spent  on  such  teachers  is  in  the 
main  wasted. 

The  professional  teacher  must  be  not  only  a  scholar, 


WHOLESOME    CULTURE  53 

but  also  a  man  of  science;  he  must  understand  the 
principles  which  underlie  the  practice  of  his  art,  must 
profess  an  educational  creed,  must  be  versed  in  some 
school  of  educational  thinking,  must  be  addicted  to 
some  mode  of  philosophizing  on  human  nature  and 
its  wants.  I  use  the  term  science  to  designate  that 
special  knowledge  which  is  required  for  the  rational 
practice  of  the  educating  art,  and  which  distinguishes 
the  teacher  from  the  scholar,  constituting  what  the 
logicians  call  the  specific  difference  between  genus  and 
species,  between  scholar  and  teacher.  In  a  quasi 
sense,  a  teacher's  knowledge  of  subjects,  as  of  gram- 
mar, algebra,  or  latin,  is  professional  knowledge,  for 
he  must  employ  it  in  the  practice  of  his  art,  though 
in  another  sense  it  is  non-professional,  for  in  this 
respect  a  teacher  is  merely  on  a  par  with  all  well  edu- 
cated men;  but  a  doctrine  of  education,  along  with 
its  derived  methods  of  teaching,  is  professional  knowl- 
edge in  a  legitimate  sense :  it  is  knowledge  which  a 
teacher  should  be  presumed  to  have,  but  which  a 
general  scholar  need  not  be  presumed  to  have. 

There  is  a  radical  antagonism  between  the  culture 
aim  and  the  technical  aim,  when  pursued  simulta- 
neously; it  is  like  attempting  to  weave  the  fabric 
and  make  the  garment  at  one  and  the  same  time; 


64  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

either  the  fabric,  or  the  garment,  or  very  likely  both, 
will  be  spoiled.  Mr.  Bain  notes  the  difficulty  of 
' '  reconciling  the  whole  man  with  himself, ' '  that  is, 
man  simply  as  a  man  with  man  as  an  instrument. 
Plato  declares  that  arithmetic  as  taught  to  merchants 
and  shopkeepers  is  incompatible  with  arithmetic  when 
taught  for  discipline  and  culture.  For  purposes  of 
liberal  training,  studies  should  be  disinterested,  they 
should  be  pursued  for  their  own  sake  and  not  for  the 
utilities  that  can  be  extracted  from  them.  A  student 
is  in  an  unwholesome  mental  and  moral  condition 
when  he  feels  constrained  to  say  of  his  studies,  ' '  How 
can  I  turn  this  knowledge  to  practical  account  in  the 
way  of  earning  my  bread?"  Under  such  conditions 
learning  ceases  to  be  liberal,  it  sacrifices  freedom  and 
breadth  to  the  exactions  of  utility.  To  paint  because 
painting  is  a  delight  is  a  very  different  thing  from 
painting  to  earn  one's  bread ;  just  as  the  ardor  of  an 
amateur  is  different  from  the  industry  of  an  artisan. 
Moderate  bibliomania  is  a  generous  passion,  but  its 
virtue  can  be  destroyed  by  buying  books  to  sell. 
Speculation  soars  on  free  and  lofty  wings,  but  it  is 
brought  to  earth  when  tied  to  staid  utilities. 

The  only  complete  relief  from  this  antagonism  be- 
tween the  liberal  and  the  technical  is  to  be  found  in 


WHOLESOME    CULTURE  55 

making  them  successive  and  not  simultaneous;  in 
securing  liberal  training  first,  and  then  superadding 
to  it  that  special  training  required  for  the  practice  of 
an  art.  On  the  Continent,  for  example,  men  whose 
ultimate  aim  is  to  become  physicians  or  clergymen 
first  become  scholars  through  the  training  of  the  gym- 
nasium and  the  university ;  and  with  this  endowment 
of  culture,  breadth  and  discipline,  they  then  apply 
themselves  to  the  mastery  of  their  chosen  profession 
or  calling.  In  this  country  a  young  man  enters  a  law 
school  or  a  medical  college  without  breadth  and  culture, 
learns  his  art  under  the  stress  of  these  limitations,  and 
enters  upon  life  maimed  and  hampered  in  many  ways. 
The  professional  training  of  teachers  is  on  a  higher 
plane.  Young  men  and  women  while  gaining  their 
technical  training  in  normal  schools  are  at  the  same 
time  caiTying  forward  their  academic  training;  and 
while  they  rarely  become  scholars  and  possess  but 
little  of  the  scholarly  spLi*it,  they  have  at  least  the 
rudiments  of  an  education  along  with  some  knowledge 
of  their  art. 

Every  consideration  disposes  me  to  speak  kindly  of 
normal  schools  and  of  the  men  and  women  who  shape 
their  policy  and  do  their  work.  They  doubtless  per- 
form a  service  which  could  be  performed  so  well  in 


66  THE   EDUCATION   OF   TEACHERS 

no  other  way,  and  whatever  faults  affect  their  work 
9,re  due  to  existing  conditions  that  cannot  be  materially 
changed.  So  far  as  they  affect  the  teaching  service  of 
the  country,  the  upper  limit  of  their  field  falls  a  little 
within  the  high  school  grade  of  the  public  school. 
Their  field  is  the  country  school,  and  in  the  city 
school  it  reaches  upwards  to  the  eleventh  grade. 
Ideally,  all  teachers,  of  whatever  grade,  should  be 
scholars  both  by  instinct  and  attainment ;  but  under 
existing  conditions  this  ideal  is  unattainable,  and  the 
best  professional  training  that  is  practically  attainable 
by  the  great  mass  of  those  who  teach  is  doubtless  given 
in  the  normal  schools  of  the  day.  Their  academic 
work  is  mainly  of  the  secondary  or  high  school  type, 
and  their  technical  training  is  mainly  in  method  and 
in  the  elements  of  psychology.  Their  courses  of 
study  are  not  in  themselves  of  the  liberal  type,  and 
they  fall  still  farther  short  of  this  end  because  the 
student's  thought  is  kept  so  continuously  on  the  me- 
chanics of  his  art.  The  culture  aim  and  the  technical 
aim  are  in  sharp  and  constant  collision,  to  the  great 
detriment,  almost  to  the  defeat,  of  both.  Their  tech- 
nical training  is  too  mechanical,  too  rigidly  exact, 
seeming  to  assume  that  the  rules  of  treatment  and 
construction  applicable  to  matter  are  also  applicable 


WHOLESOME   CULTURE  57 

to  spirit.  These  schook  have  contributed  but  little  in 
thought,  doctrine  or  personnel  to  the  permanent  teach- 
ing profession  of  the  country.  If  I  am  not  mistaken  in 
my  observations,  their  graduates  have  made  but  slight 
contributions  to  the  educational  thought  of  the  day, 
have  shown  but  little  skill  in  solving  the  graver  prob- 
lems in  public  education,  and  are  but  slightly  repre- 
sented among  the  recognized  leaders  of  public  opinion 
in  matters  of  educational  doctrine  and  practice. 

When  I  speak  of  the  imperfections  of  normal 
schools  I  have  in  my  mind  the  quality  of  their  work 
as  related  to  what  may  be  called  the  higher  teaching 
service  of  the  country,  or  to  the  teaching  profession 
properly  so  called.  As  I  view  them,  these  schools 
fail  to  meet  the  needs  of  this  higher  service  in  two 
particulars :  they  do  not  create  scholars,  and  they  do 
not  give  their  students  what  I  have  just  called  science. 
Their  aim  is  so  empirical  and  so  practical  that  culture 
aims  are  made  impossible.  In  academic  work  their 
graduates  seldom  reach  that  stage  of  growth  known 
as  ' '  intellectual  emancipation, ' '  that  stage  of  learning 
where  the  mere  drillmaster  is  abandoned  and  the  stu- 
dent comes  into  possession  of  the  free  and  voluntary 
use  of  his  powers,  where  learning  is  a  delight  and 
constitutes  the  natural  vocation   of   the   mind.     For 


58  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

anything  above  routine  service,  fixed  methods  of 
teaching  are  an  obstruction  to  growth  and  progress. 
They  absolve  the  teacher  from  all  efforts  at  invention 
and  destroy  the  possibility  of  his  best  gift,  versatility, 
the  power  to  adapt  himself  to  new  conditions,  to  rec- 
ognize exceptional  cases,  and  to  rise  superior  to  the 
iron  rule  of  tradition  and  routine.  For  artistic  work 
in  teaching,  for  that  spontaneity  of  effort  which  is 
implied  in  all  high  service  affecting  spirit,  I  think  the 
happiest  conditions  are  these :  the  zeal  of  an  amateur 
supported  and  directed  by  a  knowledge  of  general 
principles.  Outside  of  these  conditions  I  see  no  op- 
portunity for  growth.  In  the  lower  teaching  service 
it  may  be  that  purely  routine  work  is  best,  but  I  am 
now  thinking  of  that  higher  service  to  which  a  college 
is  devoted. 

I  have  dwelt  a  little  on  the  situation  of  normal 
schools,  not  for  the  purpose  of  criticising  them,  for 
the  uniformity  of  their  organization  and  the  intelli- 
gence of  those  who  conduct  them  oblige  me  to  believe 
that  they  respond  to  existing  c®nditions ;  but  rather  to 
show  how  very  difficult  it  is  to  hold  the  delicate  bal- 
ance between  the  culture  aim  and  the  technical  aim, 
to  reconcile  the  artist  with  the  artisan,  the  man  with 
the  instrument. 


THE  POLICY  OF  BENEVOLENCE 


Ill 


THE    POLICY    OF    BENEVOLENCE 

Schools  exist  and  are  maintained  not  for  the  sake 
of  their  teachers,  but  for  the  sake  of  their  pupils. 
So  far  as  the  prime  purpose  of  a  school  is  concerned 
the  pupil  has  clear  precedence  over  the  teacher.  The 
interest,  the  needs,  the  convenience  and  the  comfort 
of  students  are  to  be  consulted  first,  and  in  all  these 
respects  the  teacher  is  to  adjust  himself  to  his  pupils. 
A  recitation  is  to  be  set  for  a  given  hour,  not  because 
this  hour  suits  the  convenience  of  the  teacher,  but 
because  it  is  the  most  convenient  hour  for  his  pupils. 
Students  come  to  be  served,  not  to  serve.  Our  highest 
function  is  that  of  service  to  our  pupils,  in  the  same 
sense  that  the  highest  office  of  parents  is  to  serve  their 
children.  This  is  scriptural  condescension.  The  valid 
ground  on  which  obedience  is  enjoined  on  children, 
pupils  and  citizens  is  that  docility  is  the  necessary  con- 
dition of  being  served.  The  world's  divine  Teacher 
came  down  to  men  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to 
minister.  I  know  how  contrary  this  doctrine  is  to 
the  assumption  often  made  that  the  wishes,  wants  and 


b2i  THE    EDUCATION   OF   TEACHERS 

pleasures  of  the  teacher  stand  first,  and  that  the  stu- 
dent must  adjust  himself  to  the  caprices  cf  his  in- 
structor. This  is  no  doubt  the  cause  of  much  of  that 
antagonism  between  teacher  and  pupil  which  in  some 
schools  leads  to  insubordination  and  riot,  and  in  others 
to  a  sort  of  armed  neutrality  or  smothered  spirit  of 
insurrection  that  is  a  constant  menace  to  good  govern- 
ment. 

In  some  institutions,  by  what  we  may  call  university 
license,  offences  are  committed  against  the  person,  in 
the  way  of  hazing,  which  would  be  counted  as  pun- 
ishable crimes  if  committed  outside  of  college  walls. 
In  such  cases  university  tradition  is  mightier  than  civil 
law,  and  the  ordinary  processes  for  punishing  crimes 
are  found  to  be  powerless.  Now  what  is  the  explana- 
tion of  such  facts?  I  know  of  but  one  explanation 
of  this  anomaly.  In  a  state  of  war,  deceit,  theft,  rob- 
bery and  murder  cease  to  be  crimes  when  they  are 
practiced  on  the  enemy ;  they  in  fact  become  virtues, 
and  are  rewarded  as  such.  So  in  college  life,  a  stu- 
dent who  gains  an  advantage  by  ruse,  artifice,  fraud, 
or  force  over  his  enemy — ^his  teacher — not  only  does 
not  lose  caste  among  his  fellows,  but  he  thereby  be- 
comes a  hero  if  his  offence  is  sufficiently  great  to 
attract  public  notice. 


THE    POLICY   OF    BENEVOLENCE  63 

I  believe  that  in  all  schools  there  is  some  shade  or 
degree  of  this  secular  antagonism,  and  that  the  expla- 
nation of  this  phenomenon  lies  in  some  false  relation 
that  has  been  allowed  to  grow  up  through  years, 
perhaps  through  centuries,  between  students  and 
teachers;  and  it  is  my  further  belief  that  the  fault 
in  this  case  lies  mainly  at  the  door  of  the  teaching 
body.  What  is  this  fault,  or,  rather,  what  are  these 
faults?  In  the  main  they  seem  to  me  to  be  the 
following : 

Teachers  assume  too  great  a  difference  in  rank 
hetween  themselves  amd  their  jnij[nls.  In  the  early 
days  of  universities,  when  the  little  learning  that 
existed  was  a  monopoly  of  the  clergy,  the  pride  of 
letters  put  an  almost  impassable  gulf  between  the 
teacher  and  his  pupils.  The  teacher  was  a  prince,  a 
ruler,  made  such  almost  by  divine  favor  and  appoint- 
ment, while  his  pupils  were  his  vassals,  his  subjects, 
made  such  by  their  ignorance  and  dependence. 

In  some  quarters  there  still  exists  university  courts, 
university  codes,  and  even  university  prisons ;  and  it 
is  not  long  since  the  university  whipping-post  has 
passed  out  of  use.  The  severity  of  the  old-time  school 
and  college  discipline  is  notorious ;  it  was  harsh,  often 
cruel,  and  at  times  inhuman.    Harsh  family  discipline 


64  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

is  offset  and  tempered  by  that  respect  and  affection 
which  spring  from  kinship,  and  resentment,  if  ever 
felt,  soon  dissolves  under  parental  tenderness  and 
benevolence ;  but  the  wounds  left  by  tutorial  punish- 
ment do  not  readily  heal ;  the  scar  that  was  left  on 
the  twig  remains  on  the  tree.  Whatever  the  original 
cause  may  have  been,  the  fact  remains  that  there  is 
an  inherited  tendency  on  the  part  of  students  to  look 
upon  teachers  as  their  natural  enemies,  just  as  a  brood 
of  chickens,  anterior  to  experience,  is  terrified  and 
scattered  by  the  shadow  of  a  swooping  hawk.  The 
distance  between  teacher  and  pupil  is  even  lengthened 
in  modern  times,  especially  in  public  schools,  by  the 
fact  that  children  are  taught  in  such  masses  that  direct 
contact  is  made  well-nigh  impossible,  and  hence  all 
education,  in  its  true  and  deeper  sense,  made  equally 
impossible.  This  isolation  of  pupil  from  teacher  I 
count  as  the  radical  vice  in  school  administration.  It 
makes  sympathy  either  difficult  or  impossible;  and 
lack  of  sympathy  breeds  distrust,  dislike  and  even 
defiance.  In  American  colleges  and  universities  the 
faculty  is  the  college  court,  but  a  court  of  anomalous 
constitution,  its  members  being  at  once  prosecutors, 
witnesses,  jurymen,  judges,  and  in  their  corporate 
action,  executioner.     By  a  further  anomaly  the  student 


THE    POLICY    OF    BENEVOLENCE  66 

is  tried  and  convicted  in  his  absence,  and  so,  without 
the  privilege  accorded  to  the  worst  of  criminals  in 
civil  courts  of  introducing  evidence  in  his  own  behalf 
and  of  cross-questioning  the  evidence  brought  against 
him.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  students  distrust  decisions 
of  such  a  court  ?  Is  it  any  wonder  that  they  are  restive 
under  a  system  of  government  which  appears  to  them 
little  less  than  an  oligarchy,  and  that  they  sometimes 
resort  to  measures,  fair  or  foul,  which  have  in  them 
some  promise  of  protection  or  relief? 

For  this  evil  of  the  first  magnitude  there  are  two 
means  of  relief,  and  of  these  I  now  wish  briefly  to 
speak. 

Evidently  om-  first  duty  is  to  descend  somewhat 

from  the  heights  of  our  assumed  superiority,  and  to 

regard  our  pupils  more  as  our  equals  in  point  of  social 

position,  moral  worth,  general  intelligence  and  honesty 

of  purpose.     Our   pupils  are  our   inferiors   only  in 

knowledge  and  experience,  but  this  is  a  difference  in 

degree,  not  in  kind,  and  merely  signifies  that  we  are  a 

body  of  learners  auning  at  the  same  goal,  some  only 

fairly  started,  others  in  the  heat  of  the  race,  and  still 

others,  perhaps,  in  sight  of   the  prize  which  lies  at 

life's  close.     The  fact  that  we  are  all  leamei*s  should 

stamp  such  a  corporation  of  teachers  and  students  with 
6 


66^  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

the  seal  of  unity  and  equality.  This  was  the  original 
idea  of  a  university,  a  corporate  body  of  learners  in 
which  the  more  proficient  taught  the  less  proficient  as 
a  sort  of  payment  to  the  future  for  a  debt  incurred  in 
the  past.  This  is  the  meaning  of  the  device  we  love 
to  honor:    Education  is  a  debt  due  prom  past  to 

FUTURE   generations. 

This  fact  of  virtual  equality  should  be  instructive 
in  more  ways  than  one.  Are  we  sensitive  to  the  good 
opinion  of  others?  So  are  our  pupils.  Would  it 
shock,  mortify  and  hurt  us  to  be  reproached  in  public 
or  in  private  for  our  ignorance  or  our  stupidity?  Our 
pupils  are  similarly  hurt,  for  their  feelings  are  as  acute 
as  ours.  Do  we  find  it  hard  to  bear  our  daily  burdens 
when  ill,  or  in  trouble,  or  in  sorrow  of  any  sort?  So 
do  our  pupils.  Are  our  burdens  lightened,  or  our 
backs  strengthened,  by  a  kind  word  or  an  approving 
smile?  They,  too,  are  affected  and  helped  in  a  like 
maimer.  Do  we  who  are  older  and  wiser  and  stronger 
stand  in  need  of  charity,  forbearance  and  mercy?  So 
ehould  we  be  kind  and  merciful  to  those  who  are  pre- 
sumably weaker  and  less  wise.  And  we  need  not  fear 
to  face  this  question  of  equality  in  its  other  phase.  If 
the  faults  of  our  pupils  are  to  be  noted,  corrected  and 
possibly  punished,  so  may  not  our  own  faults  be 


THE    POLICY    OF    BENEVOLENCE  67 

subject  to  some  process  of  reproof  and  amendment? 
As  our  pupils  are  not  above  correction,  so  neither 
are  we. 

Another  fact  must  not  be  overlooked.  Many  stu- 
dents, perhaps  the  most  of  them,  labor  under  some 
stress  of  circumstances,  some  res  angthstm  domi.  It 
is  home  sacrifice  that  allowed  them  to  enter  school, 
and  it  is  still  home  sacrifice  and  personal  sacrifice  that 
keep  them  there.  I  well  know  that  the  issue  of  this 
burden-bearing  is  strength,  a  higher  and  better  type 
of  manhood  and  womanhood,  and  that  a  life  of  ease 
is  not  a  thing  to  be  desired;  but  we  may  at  least 
forbear  to  place  on  willing  shoulders  any  unnatural  or 
unnecessary  burdens,  and  may  employ  our  best  efforts 
and  wisest,  kindest  plans  towards  fortifying  our  pupil's 
ability  to  do  and  to  dare,  to  suffer  and  to  bear.  In 
Fuller's  quaint  phrase,  we  may  '' strengthen  the 
back  ' '  even  if  we  cannot  ' '  lighten  the  burden. ' ' 

The  second  measure  of  relief  which  I  propose  is  a 
coUege  court  of  equity,  as  distinguished  from  that  col- 
lege court  of  law  known  as  the  Faculty.  Students 
have  some  ground  for  looking  on  the  Faculty  as  a  sort 
of  Star  Chamber,  where  their  fate  is  determined 
within  closed  doors,  and  in  a  manner  more  or  less 
arbitrary.     Virgil's  va/riurth  et  TwutahUe  serwper  might 


68  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

aptly  be  applied  to  thig  college  court.  In  its  hearings 
and  decisions  a  Faculty  is  merely  a  large  jury,  and 
juries  are  untrustworthy  in  proportion  to  their  size, 
because  individual  responsibility  becomes  smaller  as 
the  divisor  becomes  greater.  Safety  lies  in  fixing 
responsibility  on  an  individual  or  on  a  small  number 
of  known  individuals.  In  such  cases  evidence  will  be 
weighed  with  extreme  care,  and  decisions  will  be  made 
with  extreme  caution.  At  best  a  college  Faculty  is  a 
court  of  law  in  which  decisions  are  reached  through 
forms  and  processes  more  or  less  arbitrary  and  inflexi- 
ble. Mere  law  as  distinguished  from  equity  is  heart- 
less, unfeeling,  unsympathetic ;  and  it  not  infrequently 
happens  that  a  decision  may  be  strictly  legal,  but  at 
the  same  time  unjust.  This  fact  has  become  so  appa- 
rent in  the  history  of  judicature  that  courts  of  equity 
have  been  established  to  supplement  courts  of  law,  so 
that  appeals  may  be  taken  for  review  to  a  smaller  jury 
where  justice  may  be  tempered  with  mercy  and  where 
the  letter  that  kills  may  be  offset  by  the  spirit  which 
gives  life.  It  is  no  doubt  best  that  the  college  Faculty 
should  remain,  in  the  main,  what  it  now  is,  a  court  of 
law,  but  with  the  necessary  proviso,  that  it  is  supple- 
mented by  a  court  of  equity.  If,  in  the  final  sum- 
ming up,  it  appears  that  a  student  lacks  merely  a  poor 


THE    POLICY   OF    BENEVOLENCE 


one-fifth  in  the  requirements  for  graduation,  it  is  just 
and  proper  that  the  Faculty  should  follow  the  strict 
letter  of  the  law  and  deny  him  graduation;  but  in 
this  and  all  similar  cases  there  should  be  the  privilege 
of  appeal  to  a  higher  court  where  the  decision  of  the 
lower  tribunal  may  be  reviewed  in  the  light  of  equity 
as  well  as  of  law.  I  see  no  good  reason  why  the 
course  of  college  judicature  should  not  be  substantially 
the  same  as  that  of  civil  judicature.  Experience  has 
shown  in  the  last  case  that  there  must  be  channels  of 
appeal  from  lower  tribunals  to  higher,  to  the  end  that 
injustice  and  oppression  may  be  prevented  by  appeal- 
ing from  the  tyranny  of  form  and  the  prejudice  of 
passion  to  the  wider  principles  of  jurisprudence  and 
the  larger  precepts  of  equity.  I  feel  sure  that  such 
a  system  of  college  judicature  would  commend  itself 
to  the  student  body  and  would  prevent  that  suspicion 
and  alienation  which  tend  to  maintain  a  gulf  between 
it  and  us.  A  college  judicial  system  might  be  com- 
posed of  three  courts  as  follows:  The  Faculty,  or 
court  of  law;  the  executive  conmaittee,  or  court  of 
appeal;  and  the  president,  or  court  of  equity,  the 
court  of  last  resort.  ^N^either  of  these  lower  courts 
should  be  suspicious  or  envious  of  the  one  next  above 
it,  through  the  feeling  that  its  own  prerogatives  may 


70  THE    EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

be  set  aside,  or  its  own  dignity  compromised.  Neither 
of  these  bodies  should  assail  the  decision  of  another, 
but  in  thought  and  speech  should  confirm  it.  In  this 
way  each  court  will  become  conservative  and  safe 
and  the  whole  system  sound  and  beneficent.  There 
should  be  an  organization  of  Faculty  and  students 
into  one  compact,  harmonious  body,  living  and  acting 
in  a  concert  undisturbed  by  suspicious  or  rival  interests, 
and  ambitious  only  for  the  common  good.  In  other 
words  we  want,  in  the  best  and  completest  sense,  a 
college  commonwealth,  a  true  republic  of  letters, 
where,  through  community  of  interest  and  vocation, 
teachers  and  students  shall  be  wrought  into  one  cor- 
poration for  the  promotion  of  knowledge  and  virtue. 
The  other  fault  which  I  shall  notice  is  this :  The 
assumption  that  college  administration  should  illus- 
trate the  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  that  the 
mediocre  and  the  dull  should  be  forced  or  crowded 
out,  and  that  only  the  bright  and  the  brilliant  are 
worthy  of  the  teacher's  efforts.  Stated  in  these  plain 
terms,  no  one  will  acknowledge  that  he  justifies  such 
a  policy ;  but  practically  the  colleges  and  universities 
whose  avowed  or  implied  mission  is  a  ' '  standard ' ' 
conduct  their  teaching  and  examining  on  this  hy- 
pothesis.    Just  what  I  mean  will  become  plainer  if  I 


THE    POLICY   OF    BENEVOLENCE  71 

state  what  I  think  should  be  an  axiom  in  college 
administration:  The  woeth  of  a  school  is  deter- 
mined, NOT  BY  THE  FEW  WHO  SURVIVE  THE  RIGORS 
OF   ITS    DISCIPLINE,   BUT   BY  THE   MANY   WHO   ARE    MADE 

TO  THRIVE  ON  ITS  NURTURE.  The  feeling  is  widely- 
prevalent  that  a  college  is  open  only  to  the  select,  the 
elect,  that  it  is  closed  to  minds  of  the  common  mould, 
that  it  is  an  institution  set  apart,  if  not  for  the  aris- 
tocracy of  wealth,  at  least  for  the  aristocracy  of  intel- 
lect. I  incline  to  a  wholly  different  view.  A  college 
should  be  democratic  in  its  aims  and  methods,  it 
should  be  open  to  the  poor  and  the  lowly,  it  should 
afford  an  opportunity  for  the  common  mind  to  add  to 
its  powers  and  its  stores,  and  its  usefulness  should  be 
measured  by  the  breadth  of  its  helpfulness  and  not  by 
the  height  to  which  it  can  push  exceptional  talent. 
Who  may  be  admitted  to  a  college?  He  who  is  likely 
to  profit  by  the  advantages  which  it  offers.  Who 
may  be  retained  in  a  college?  He  who  is  making  an 
honest  and  profitable  use  of  his  time  and  talents.  Who 
may  be  removed  from  college?  He  who  misuses  his 
time  and  opportunity,  or  who  is  unable  to  profit  by 
the  advantages  offered  him.  As  there  are  diversities 
of  gifts,  so  there  will  be  diversities  of  improvement. 
In  a  class  of  twenty  there  may  be  twenty  grades  of 


72  THE   EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

scholarship,  and  still  each  student  may  be  in  his  right 
place ;  just  as  in  a  church  there  may  be  an  audience 
of  a  thousand,  and  while  no  two  hearers  are  equally 
edified  by  the  sermon,  all  are  profited  according  to 
their  several  ability.  A  teacher's  power  is  to  be 
estimated,  not  by  what  his  best  pupils  do,  but  by  what 
the  more  poorly  endowed  are  enabled  to  do  by  his 
inspiration  and  aid.  Dullness  and  ignorance  are  mis- 
fortunes to  be  patiently  relieved,  not  offences  to  be 
summarily  punished.  Diligence  and  good  intent,  even 
when  associated  with  dullness,  are  cardinal  virtues  to 
be  respected  and  rewarded.  The  false  ambition  of 
teachers  to  set  up  standards  entails  countless  miseries 
on  the  timid  and  the  weak.  Generally  speaking, 
colleges  are  conservative  and  careful ;  but  overdriving 
is  not  unknown,  and  one  of  the  last  lessons  for  some 
instructors  to  learn  is  to  assign  lessons  of  reasonable 
length,  and  to  recollect  that  other  teachers  are  entitled 
to  a  fair  share  of  the  student's  time.  Instances  have 
occurred  in  which  the  lessons  assigned  in  one  class,  if 
well  learned,  would  require  three-fourths  of  all  the 
student's  available  time.  Under  such  an  unmerciful 
stress,  students  will  either  bolt  or  break,  and  the 
student  of  finest  fiber  will  break  first.  Some  years 
ago  a  high  spirited,  ambitious  and  most  benevolent 


THE    POLICY    OF    BENEVOLENCE  73 

student  began  her  work  in  college  with  high  hopes. 
She  soon  began  to  feel  the  pressure  of  inordinate  tasks 
and  sharp  reproof.  She  made  heroic  attempts  to  re- 
cover lost  ground  and  lost  favor,  but  her  burdens 
became  heavier  and  her  powers  of  resistance  feebler. 
Near  the  close  of  the  first  semester,  broken  in  health 
and  in  mind,  wounded  in  spirit,  she  returned  to  her 
home  to  nourish  resentments  which  were  too  well 
founded  to  be  argued  away.  This  case  of  overpressure 
was  not  the  result  of  any  intent,  but  was  the  conse- 
quence of  a  policy  whose  faults  I  am  now  trying  to 
expose.  Teachers  without  nerves  do  not  readily  sym- 
pathize mth  students  who  have  nerves.  Teachers 
whose  feehngs  for  any  reason  have  become  callous, 
sometimes  make  cruel  assaults  on  the  sensitiveness  of 
diffident  and  deserving  pupils. 

By  way  of  summary  and  conclusion : 

The  general  fault  in  college  administration  which  I 
have  here  pointed  out,  and  for  which  I  am  trying  to 
find  a  remedy,  is  not  peculiar  to  any  one  school.  It 
is  a  fault  so  general  that  the  hope  of  extirpating  it 
may  be  a  chimera,  but  we  may  at  least  hope  to  reduce 
it  to  its  minimum  degree  of  evil.  This  fault  is  the 
secular  antagonism  between  the  student  body  and  the 
teaching  body.     I  call   it  secular  because  it  is  as  old 


74:  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

as  universities  themselves.  I  want  to  see  these  two 
interests  fused  into  one  so  that  the  school  shall  be  an 
organic  whole,  made  such  by  perfect  harmony  of  con- 
duct and  intent,  instead  of  a  house  divided  against 
itself.  The  cause  of  this  breach  of  harmony  lies 
mainly  in  the  teaching  body.  If  students  are  suspi- 
cious and  resentful  it  may  be  because  they  have  been 
treated  with  some  measure  of  harshness  and  injustice. 
A  school  should  develop  docility,  responsiveness  and 
loyalty  in  its  students.  With  the  rarest  of  exceptions, 
they  deserve  only  kindness,  courtesy  and  hearty  re- 
spect, and  need  no  other  stimulus  than  mild  and 
deserved  commendation  for  perseverance  under  diffi- 
culties. 

In  conclusion  what  better  counsel  can  I  give  than 
this  from  Sartor  JHesarlms  f 

' '  '  My  teachers, '  says  he,  '  were  hide-bound  Ped- 
ants, without  knowledge  of  man's  nature,  or  of 
boy's ;  or  of  ought  save  their  lexicons  and  quarterly 
account-books.  Innumerable  dead  vocables  (no  dead 
language,  for  they  themselves  knew  no  language), 
they  crammed  into  us,  and  called  it  fostering  the 
growth  of  mind.  How  can  an  inanimate,  mechanical 
Gerund-grinder,  the  like  of  whom  will,  in  a  subse- 
quent century,  be  manufactured  at  Niirnberg  out  of 


THE    POLICY    OF    BENEVOLENCE  75 

wood  and  leather,  foster  the  growth  of  anything; 
much  more  mind,  which  grows,  not  like  a  vegetable 
(by  having  its  roots  littered  with  etymological  com- 
post), but  like  a  spirit,  by  mysterious  contact  of 
Spirit;  Thought  kindling  itself  at  the  fire  of  living 
thought?  How  shall  he  give  kindling,  in  whose  own 
inward  man  there  is  no  live  coal,  but  all  is  burnt  out 
to  a  dead  grammatical  cinder?  The  Hinterschlag 
Professors  knew  syntax  enough;  and  of  the  human 
soul  thus  much :  that  it  had  a  faculty  called  memory, 
and  could  be  acted  on  through  the  muscular  integu- 
ment by  appliance  of  birch-rods. 

*  'Alas,  so  is  it  everywhere,  so  will  it  ever  be ;  till 
the  Hodman  is  discharged  or  reduced  to  hod-bearing ; 
and  an  Architect  is  hired,  and  on  all  hands  fitly  en- 
couraged; till  communities  and  individuals  discover, 
not  without  surprise,  that  fashioning  the  souls  of  a 
generation  by  knowledge  can  rank  on  a  level  with 
blowing  their  bodies  to  pieces  by  gunpowder;  that 
with  Generals  and  Fieldmarshals  for  killing,  there 
should  be  world-honored  dignitaries,  and  were  it  pos- 
sible, true  God-ordained  Priests,  for  teaching.  But 
as  yet,  though  the  soldier  wears  openly,  and  even 
parades,  his  butchering-tool,  nowhere,  far  as  I  have 
travelled,  did  the   Schoolmaster   make   show   of  his 


76  THE    EDUCATION   OF    TEACHERS 

instructing  tool;  nay,  were  he  to  walk  abroad  with 
birch  girt  on  thigh,  as  if  he  therefrom  expected 
honour,  would  there  not,  among  the  idler  class,  per- 
haps a  certain  levity  be  excited?  "  ' 


TEACHING  A  SPIRITUAL,  NOT  A 
MECHANICAL,  ART 


IV 

TEACHESTG  A  SPIEITUAL,  NOT  A  MECHAN- 
ICAL, AKT 

OFTENnMKS  the  best  instruction  is  that  which  is 
merely  suggestive.  It  commends  some  theme  for  re- 
flection, and  leaves  each  mind  free  to  do  its  own 
thinking  and  to  come  to  its  own  conclusions.  This 
mode  of  procedure  is  particularly  necessary  when 
mature  minds  are  dealing  with  those  complex  and 
many-sided  questions  which  are  connected  with  prac- 
tical education.  However  long  and  patient  our  think- 
ing may  have  been,  it  is  not  very  probable  that  any  of 
us  have  looked  through  and  entirely  around  even  the 
simplest  question  involved  in  the  educating  art.  It  is 
by  a  division  of  labor  that  these  problems  are  finally 
compassed.  Men  severally  look  at  the  different  phases 
of  a  complex  question,  and  thus  by  discussion,  com- 
parison and  ultimate  agreement,  there  results  a  com- 
posite view  of  the  truth  more  or  less  perfect  as  the 
thought  has  been  catholic,  penetrating  and  judicial. 

It  is  worth  while  to  remind  ourselves  that  the 
problem  of  human  education  is  one  of  the  very  earliest 


80  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

that  taxed  the  ingenuity  and  wisdom  of  thinking.men ; 
and  that  this  theme  has  been  a  favorite  topic  of  dis- 
cussion by  the  most  learned  and  the  most  saintly  men 
in  all  ages  of  the  world.  The  most  interesting  and 
the  most  instructive  chapter  in  the  general  history  of 
the  world  is  that  which  relates  to  the  rise,  progress 
and  fate  of  those  countless  systems  which  have  been 
devised  for  the  education  and  training  of  the  young. 
This  is  no  less  than  the  history  of  civilization  itself, 
and  exhibits  man's  power,  by  deliberate  thinking,  over 
the  destiny  of  the  race  to  which  he  belongs. 

Family  pride,  based  on  noble  living  and  virtuous 
achievement,  is  one  of  the  most  wholesome  and  in- 
spiring emotions  of  the  soul.  It  puts  a  precious 
heritage  in  the  keeping  of  each  new  generation  and 
reinforces  individual  worth  and  power  by  the  worth 
and  power  accumulated  and  capitalized  through  gen- 
erations of  noble  lives.  Yirtue  thus  becomes  a  tradi- 
tion and  an  inheritance,  and  their  possessor  is  placed 
on  vantage  ground  that  may  insure  victory  in  the  race 
of  life.  'Pride  in  one's  professional  ancestry  is  a  kin- 
dred emotion,  and  any  calling  which  inherits  noble 
traditions  will  have  a  following  of  superior  spirits. 
To  be  ashamed  of  one's  calling  is  to  confess  defeat, 
and  in  some  measure  to  deserve  it,  for  one  of  the  first 


TEACHING    A    SPIRITUAL    ART  81 

rules  of  living  is  to  shun  any  occupation  into  which  one 
cannot  put  one's  whole  soul.  When  oppressed  with 
the  routine  cares  of  my  profession  I  find  reinforcement 
and  relief  in  the  thought  that  the  masterpiece  of  the 
world's  master  thinker,  Plato,  is  a  treatise  on  education, 
and  with  the  pages  of  the  incomparable  ' '  Republic ' ' 
before  him  the  teacher  may  feel  a  conscious  pride  of 
calling  which  will  make  him  step  lightly  over  the  vex- 
ations that  sometimes  embarrass  his  steps.  Can  we 
ever  forget  that  the  highest  oflSice  ever  conferred  by 
heaven  on  mortals  was  to  be  the  teacher  of  men?  The 
essence  of  real  preaching  is  effective  teaching,  and  we 
miss  the  grandeur  of  the  teaching  office  if  we  fail  to  see 
that  the  ministry  of  the  schoolroom  is  as  sacred  as  the 
ministry  of  the  altar. 

"With  respect  to  their  influence  in  raising  the  tone 
and  type  of  human  thought  and  life,  occupations 
naturally  fall  into  three  categories  or  classes — those 
which  degrade  and  corrupt,  those  which  are  merely 
neutral  or  conservative,  and  those  which,  by  their 
positive  and  aggressive  character,  lift  the  race  to 
higher  and  higher  planes  of  thinking  and  living.  In 
other  terms,  some  men  employ  their  activities  in 
making  the  world  worse,  and  if  their  numbers  were 
not  restricted  and  their  influence  checked  and  counter- 


82  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

acted  the  race  would  lapse  into  beastliness  and  infamy ; 
other  men  receive  from  society  the  best  it  aan  give, 
return  to  it  a  fair  equivalent  for  what  they  have 
received,  and  leave  the  world  in  the  same  condition  as 
though  they  had  never  lived  in  it ;  while  others,  and 
this  by  far  the  smaller  number,  return  to  society  much 
more  than  they  take  from  it,  transform  the  common 
things  of  life  into  things  of  noble  nature  and  use,  and 
leave  the  world  a  better  and  a  ha.ppier  place  because 
they  have  lived  and  labored  in  it.  By  slothful  and 
wasteful  tillage  one  farmer  will  impoverish  and  ruin  a 
field  that  nature  had  blessed  with  fatness;  another 
will  hold  an  even  balance  between  waste  and  repair, 
and  in  the  end  will  leave  his  fields  neither  better  nor 
worse  for  his  occupancy ;  while  a  third  will  develop 
the  hidden  resources  of  the  earth,  will  transform  air, 
rain  and  sunlight  into  orchards  and  herds  and  har- 
vests, will  fill  his  barns  with  the  precious  fruits  of  the 
earth,  and  will  leave  his  fields  endowed  with  tenfold 
fertility  through  his  creative  and  transforming  power. 
By  means  of  human  industry,  art  and  genius,  the 
material  world  is  passing  through  a  series  of  trans- 
formations which  in  the  end  will  amount  to  a  re-crea- 
tion. Fertile  and  populous  Holland,  reclaimed  from 
the  sea,  is  the  type  of  what  civilized  man  is  doing  all 


TEACHING    A    SPIRITUAL    ART  83 

Dver  the  face  of  the  earth.  Literally  the  wilderness 
is  being  made  to  blossom  as  the  rose.  Deserts  are 
being  converted  into  arable  and  productive  fields; 
mountains  are  brought  low;  the  deep  places  of  the 
earth  filled  up;  pestilent  marshes  are  drained  and 
cultivated;  treasures  hidden  under  the  mountains 
since  the  morning  of  creation  are  unearthed  and  con- 
verted into  beauty  and  power ;  and  over  the  earth  and 
the  sea,  and  through  the  air,  men  are  constructing 
numberless  highways  for  the  transmission  and  diffu- 
sion of  wealth,  comfort,  intelligence  and  happiness.. 
In  an  analogous  way  the  moral  world  is  passing 
through  a  series  of  upward  transformations  towards 
peace,  charity,  brotherly  kindness  and  righteousness, 
and  in  the  end,  we  cannot  doubt,  there  will  be  a  new 
people  for  the  new  earth;  the  world  of  matter  and 
the  world  of  spirit  will  have  been  changed  from  one 
glory  to  another  till  the  thought  of  God  for  man  and 
his  dwelling  place  shall  have  ended  in  its  perfect  reali- 
zation. Taken  in  its  broad  but  legitimate  sense,  this 
work  of  re-creation  or  restoration  is  the  final  aim  of 
education;  and  the  glory  of  the  teacher's  calling  is 
that  it  is  the  agency  by  which  human  society  is  to  be 
lifted  to  higher  and  higher  planes  of  physical,  mental 
and   moral   perfection.     Of  the   three   categories   of 


84  THE    EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

occupations  just  noted,  the  educating  art  belongs  pre- 
eminently to  the  third  and  highest — its  aims  are  bene- 
ficent and  beneficent  only. 

' '  Teaching, ' '  says  Mr.  Fitch,  ' '  is  the  noblest  of 
professions,  but  the  sorriest  of  trades,"  and  in  speak- 
ing of  the  dignity  of  the  educating  art,  I  have  asso- 
ciated it  with  all  that  is  best  in  mind,  heart  and 
character.  '  'A  teacher, ' '  says  Rousseau,  *  *  what  a 
noble  soul  he  ought  to  be !  "  Education  might  be 
defined  as  the  art  of  moulding  or  transforming  char- 
acter, and  the  teaching  which  is  tributary  to  this  high 
art  must  be  an  alliance  of  intellect  with  heart.  There 
is  much  teaching  that  does  not  take  hold  on  character ; 
it  leaves  the  heart  untouched  and  so  leaves  the  springs 
of  conduct  unaffected.  Into  teaching  which  effects 
the  ends  that  education  has  in  view,  there  must  be 
infused  generous  measures  of  honest  affection.  Mag- 
nanimity, benevolence  and  moral  courage  are  three 
requisites  for  attaining  real  success  in  the  educating 
art,  and  the  whole  process  is  spiritual  to  an  extreme 
degree.  Plato,  and  Ruskin  after  him,  make  teaching 
a  process  of  eliciting ;  Emerson  calls  it  provocation ; 
and  some  have  represented  it  as  induction,  as  wl\en 
President  Garfield  speaks  of  a  college  as  consisting 
essentially  of  two  things,  an  impressible  boy  on  one 


TEACHING    A    SPIRITUAL    ART  85 

end  of  a  bench  and  a  Mark  Hopkins  on  the  other.  It 
suffices  to  place  a  bar  of  soft  iron  in  the  near  presence 
of  a  magnet  in  order  to  cause  it  to  take  on  magnetic 
qualities.  We  call  this  induction,  and  it  is  by  an 
analogous  process  that  children  become  generous, 
magnanimous,  noble  and  scholarly,  by  absorbing  the 
qualities  from  those  who  are  highly  charged  with 
them.  This  amounts  to  saying  that  education  is 
character-building,  and  as  character  is  affected  chiefly 
by  character,  all  that  is  best  in  life  and  letters  should 
enter  into  the  spirit  of  the  teacher.  It  was  once  said 
of  a  very  beautiful  and  accomplished  woman  that  to 
be  on  terms  of  close  friendship  with  her  was  a  liberal 
education ;  and  it  is  certain  that  the  near  presence  of 
a  scholarly  man  or  woman  is  more  potent  than  text- 
book or  lecture  can  be  in  the  production  of  manly  or 
womanly  character.  Perfunctory  teaching  that  begins 
and  ends  merely  with  a  didactic  lesson  faUs  sterile  on 
the  sensitive  soul  and  leaves  nothing  which  makes  for 
righteousness  and  peace.  Good  teaching  must  have 
much  of  the  persuasive  power  of  oratory.  It  must 
kindle  enthusiasm,  establish  motive,  fortify  the  will 
and  inspire  the  soul  to  noble  acting.  When  the  boys 
at  Eugby  saw  the  face  of  Dr.  Arnold  looking  kindly 
and  approvingly  on  them  from  his  study  window  as 


/>*'1 


86         THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS 

I 

they  swayed  and  struggled  in  the  quadrangle  below, 
they  were  affected  by  the  same  impulse  to  heroic 
achievements  which  urged  on  Napoleon's  soldiers  at 
the  battle  of  the  Pyramids.  In  this  sense  every  great 
teacher  is  a  great  captain;  he  prevails  more  by  his 
presence  and  example  than  by  any  set  lesson  in  science 
or  letters.  I  think  we  must  all  lament  the  decay  of 
discipleship,  that  ardent  affection  which  attaches  pupil 
to  master,  and  that  devotion  which  espouses  his  cause 
and  propagates  his  doctrines.  Teaching  that  does  not 
end  in  some  degree  of  discipleship  is  lacking  in  one 
essential  feature,  for  Aristotle  has  observed  that  we 
do  not  readily  learn  from  one  we  do  not  love.  The 
modern  doctrine  that  the  pupil  must  early  become 
independent  of  his  master,  must  become  a  law  to  him- 
self, and  espouse  only  his  own  opinions,  though  true 
to  a  certain  extent,  sacrifices  the  dearest  element  in 
education,  the  guiding,  moulding  and  transforming 
power  of  a  serene  and  cultured  soul. 

There  is  much  in  modern  education  which  encour- 
ages the  purely  mechanical  aspect  of  teaching,  which 
regards  the  child  as  a  piece  of  matter  to  be  trimmed 
and  fitted  into  regulation  shape,  which  deals  with  free 
and  versatile  spirit  as  the  artisan  deals  with  senseless 
wood  and  iron.     This  danger  has  always  been  abroad 


TEACHING    A    SPIRITUAL    ART  87 

in  the  world,  but  it  has  become  imminent  and  actual 
in  this  age  when  children  are  taught  in  masses  under 
machine  pressure,  and  when  products  are  to  be  turned 
out  that  must  fit  into  prescribed  places.  It  seems  to 
be  a  very  general  law  that  the  first  stage  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  human  organizations  is  the  mechanical ;  that 
before  they  emerge  into  the  perfect  law  of  liberty  they 
must  suffer  a  bondage  to  harsh  and  unfeeling  prescrip- 
tions ;  that  routine  and  rule  must  for  a  time  usurp  the 
place  of  spontaneity  and  reason.  Christianity  had 
such  an  evolution,  and  it  is  not  singular  that  educa- 
tion, falling  perchance  under  the  fashioning  of  coarser 
hands,  should  obey  the  same  tendency.  The  coming 
era  in  the  history  of  public  education  in  the  South  is 
the  era  of  the  graded  school,  for  it  cannot  be  doubted 
that  in  the  lifetime  of  some  of  us  every  city  and  every 
village-  in  this  vast  domain  will  have  its  '*  people's 
college,"  its  graded  school,  free  and  open  to  all  who 
choose  to  enter  it,  and  offering  to  rich  and  poor  an 
education  which,  a  century  ago,  could  have  been 
obtained  only  by  the  privileged  few  in  a  college  or  a 
university ;  for  the  first-class  high  school  of  to-day  is 
superior  to  the  college  of  the  last  century.  I  know 
the  graded  school  too  well  to  speak  of  it  slightingly, 
and  I  am  too  good  a  friend  of  it  to  ignore  or  deny  a 


88         THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS 

danger  which  besets  its  administration.  In  dealing 
with  masses  of  children,  as  with  masses  of  men,  there 
must  be  order,  precision  and  prompt  obedience  to 
authority,  and  in  a  school,  as  in  an  army,  there  must 
be  a  certain  amount  of  routine  and  a  certain  degree  of 
mechanism.  The  type  of  school  organization  is  doubt- 
less military ;  there  must  be  subordination  as  well  as 
coordination ;  there  must  be  one  responsible  head,  and 
there  must  be  a  downward  distiibution  of  authority 
through  subordinates,  whose  jurisdiction  becomes 
smaller  as  their  number  becomes  larger.  But  while 
the  mechanical  is  thus  a  necessity,  it  should  not  absorb 
the  working  power  of  the  organization.  The  machine 
does  not  exist  for  itseK,  as  superintendents  sometimes 
seem  to  think,  but  for  the  inner  life  which  it  embodies 
and  manifests,  and  which  alone  gives  value  to  its  crude 
tenement.  More  than  one  man  whose  dull  sense  sees 
only  the  outward  has  become  enamored  of  the  smoothly 
working  machine  which  he  calls  his  school.  I  once 
visited  a  graded  school  which  moved  with  the  fatal 
accuracy  of  clockwork.  At  recess  the  three  hundred 
or  four  hundred  pupils  marched  down  to  the  play- 
ground with  military  precision,  and  an  inflexible  rule 
would  have  carried  out  a  line  of  children  into  a  pelt- 
ing rainstorm,  for  the  synmietry  of  the  parade  must 


TEACHING   A   SPIRITUAL    ART  89 

not  be  marred  for  health's  sake.  While  the  sports  of 
the  play-ground  were  at  their  height  the  bell  struck, 
and  instantly  every  arm  and  foot  and  feature  became 
fixed  in  the  very  attitude  in  which  it  had  been  caught, 
as  though  petrified  or  frozen  by  the  sudden  summons. 
After  a  moment's  suspense  another  signal  was  given, 
the  dispersed  columns  were  reformed,  and  the  pupils 
returned  to  their  places  in  military  order.  I  soon 
discovered  that  this  man's  power  was  very  largely 
absorbed  in  his  darling  machine,  and  that  the  life  of 
his  school  was  lean  and  thin  and  sickly.  Up  to 
a  certain  point  organization  promotes  life,  growth 
and  development,  but  beyond  this  point  it  absorbs  and 
neutralizes  the  vital  forces  and  tends  to  impoverish- 
ment and  death.  I  have  seen  farmers  whose  revenues 
were  so  absorbed  in  buildings,  fences,  gates  and  ma- 
chinery, that  the  downward  road  to  ruin  was  rapid 
and  inevitable.  The  soul  will  live  on  friendly  terms 
with  a  body  that  is  normally  developed,  but  the  athlete 
soon  becomes  an  animal,  and  then  the  soul  shrivels 
and  perishes.  The  ancient  Greek  teachers  knew  this, 
and  held  that  gymnastic  exercise  was  not  for  the  body, 
but  for  the  soul,  and  that  it  was  necessary  to  maintain  the 
physical  and  spiritual  in  a  state  of  delicate  equipoise. 
The  school,  like  the  soul,   must  have  a  body  or 


90  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

tenement  in  which  to  live  and  through  which  to  mani- 
fest its  life  and  power;  but  the  mere  domicile  may 
absorb  so  much  time,  attention  and  money  that  the 
school  itself  may  be  lean  and  languishing.  I  have 
known  ambitious  towns  having  a  population  of  a  few 
thousand,  out  of  sheer  rivalry  with  wealthier  places, 
to  build  magnificent  temples  of  learning  and  bequeath 
a  heritage  of  taxation  to  succeeding  generations. 
Almost  immediately  this  burden  of  debt  would  begin 
to  gall  and  vex,  relief  would  be  sought  in  a  reduction 
of  salaries  and  necessary  working  expenses,  till  the 
soul  of  the  school  was  starved  and  shrunken.  Where 
heroic  and  devoted  teachers  have  remained  at  the  post 
of  duty  under  this  adverse  stress  the  burden  of  debt 
has  virtually  been  shifted  to  their  shoulders ;  for  what 
has  been  saved  out  of  a  just  remuneration  has  gone  to 
liquidate  a  debt  unwisely  contracted  by  the  public. 
1^0  one  will  for  a  moment  call  in  question  the  advan- 
tages of  commodious,  well-arranged  and  well-equipped 
school  buildings;  and  in  structures  built  at  public 
expense  and  for  public  use  the  public  school  should 
outrank  all  others;  but  any  expenditure  in  brick, 
architecture  or  adornment  that  cripples  the  intellectual 
and  spiritual  resources  of  the  school  is  not  only  bad 
economy  but  a  great  public  wrong. 


TEACHING    A    SPIRITUAL    ART  91 

I  have  just  noted  the  fact  that  a  teacher  may  so 
expend  himself  and  his  resources  in  mere  discipline 
that  his  real  usefulness  as  an  instructor  may  be  de- 
stroyed ;  but  the  fact  deserves  notice  how  mere  love 
of  precision  and  mechanical  order  may  lead  to  down- 
right cruelty.  It  is  a  good  thing  by  the  use  of  all 
fair  measures  to  reduce  tardiness  to  a  minimum,  but 
some  teachers  stake  their  whole  reputation  on  the 
absolute  prohibition  of  this  evil.  They  make  tardi- 
ness a  simple  impossibility  by  closing  and  locking  the 
doors  the  moment  the  hour  for  opening  school  has 
come.  This  was  the  rule  in  a  winter  school  in  a  dis- 
tant State,  At  9  o'clock  the  outer  door  was  locked. 
A  few  minutes  later  two  little  children,  a  brother  and 
sister,  belated  by  a  long  walk  over  roads  blocked  with 
snow,  came  to  the  door  with  hands  and  feet  benumbed 
with  cold.  Being  unable  to  enter,  they  stood  shiver- 
ing on  the  steps  till  finally  a  lady  who  was  passing  in 
a  cutter  took  them  in  and  carried  them  to  her  own 
fireside.  This,  doubtless,  is  an  extreme  case,  but  it 
illustrates  the  vice  of  that  mechanical  discipline  which 
would  sacrifice  health,  comfort  and  reasonable  freedom 
to  the  vain  show  of  mere  routine. 

I  repeat  the  thought  that  there  must  be  a  certain 
amount   of   mechanism,  and   even   routine,  in   every 


92  THE    EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

school  organization.  Viewed  externally,  a  large  public 
school  with  its  companies  and  regiments  of  children 
supervised  and  governed  by  a  chief  and  his  subordi- 
nates is  a  machine,  and  a  very  complex  one;  but 
whether  this  mechanism  shall  promote  and  facilitate 
the  intellectual  life  within  or  shall  obstruct  and  per- 
vert it — all  this  depends  on  the  manner  in  which  the 
school  is  administered.  There  is  doubtless  a  disposi- 
tion among  schoolmen  and  teachers  to  trust  too  much 
to  the  working  power  of  mere  machinery,  just  as  men 
may  depend  too  much  on  the  mere  church  for  personal 
salvation ;  and  in  this  formative  period  in  the  history 
of  public  education  in  the  South  it  cannot  be  amiss  for 
us  to  guard  against  a  danger  that  has  beset  the  older 
systems  of  public  instruction.  "We  are  to  recollect 
that  the  public  school  is  everywhere  coming  to  the 
front,  and  that  with  us,  as  with  all  the  progressive 
people  of  the  world,  it  is  coming  to  stay.  The  State 
has  become  a  public  educator,  and  the  public  school 
has  the  right  of  eminent  domain.  The  typical  school 
of  the  future  is  not  the  private  academy  nor  the  school 
that  is  half  free  and  half  public,  but  the  public  school, 
free  and  open  to  all,  graded  and  supervised  by  public 
authority,  and  taught  by  men  and  women  whose  quali- 
fications have  been  tested  by  official  inspection. 


TEACHERS  TO  BE  EDUCATED,  NOT 
TRAINED 


TEACHERS  TO  BE  EDUCATED,  KOT 
TRAINED 

If  I  were  asked  to  define  the  mission  of  a  normal 
college,  my  definition  would  be  this :  To  cdd  in  the 
formation  cmd  recruitment  of  a  teaching  profession 
which  should  demote  itself  to  the  coAise  of  public-school 
education. 

As  between  public  education  and  private  education, 
the  former  has  the  right  of  eminent  domain.  The 
modem  State,  as  a  measure  of  self-preservation,  has 
made  itself  a  public  educator.  Education  has  become 
a  branch  of  the  public  service,  maintained  and  super- 
vised at  public  expense,  and  teachers  are  State  officials, 
acting  under  legal  sanctions,  and  paid,  at  least  in  part, 
out  of  the  public  revenues.  There  is  no  interference 
with  schools  conducted  by  individuals,  or  by  religious 
denominations ;  but  the  State  has  such  a  vital  interest 
in  the  quality  of  its  citizenship  that  it  has  become  the 
dominant  patron  of  education.  The  South  is  now  in 
a  state  of  rapid  transition  from  private  education  to  an 
education   prescribed   and   supported  by   public   au- 


96  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

thority;  and  the  great  problem  of  the  day  is  the 
creation  of  a  teaching  class  competent  to  administer 
this  branch  of  the  public  service  with  intelligence  and 
skill. 

There  never  will  be  a  teaching  profession  in  the 
exclusive,  compact  sense  in  which  there  is  a  legal  or  a 
medical  profession.  Teaching  is  a  profession  of  the 
military  type.  As  all  who  bear  arms  are  not  profes- 
sional soldiers,  so  all  who  teach  are  not  professional 
teachers.  In  both  cases  there  is  the  regular  and  the 
volunteer,  the  former  educated  at  some  West  Point, 
the  other  trained  for  a  brief  service  in  some  camp  by 
official  experts.  The  regular  has  a  vocation,  and  re- 
mains permanently  in  the  service  of  his  country ;  the 
volunteer's  service,  however  valuable  and  important 
at  the  time,  is  merely  an  incident  in  his  career.  The 
institute,  the  training  class  and  the  county  normal 
school  are  in  scholastic  life  what  the  soldiers'  camp  is 
in  military  life ;  while  West  Point  and  Annapolis  are 
typical  of  the  higher  institutions  devoted  to  the  edu- 
cation of  professional  teachers,  the  characteristic  fea- 
ture of  whose  course  of  study  is  the  history  and  science 
of  education. 

As  I  understand  it,  the  prime  function  of  the 
normal  college  should  be  the  education  of  professional 


TEACHERS  TO  BE  EDUCATED  NOT  TRAINED   97 

teachers,  as  distinguished  from  the  training  of  volun- 
teer teachers ;  or,  in  more  definite  terms,  the  prepara- 
tion of  men  and  woman  to  become  teachers  and 
guides,  endowed  with  powers  of  initiative  and  com- 
mand, rather  than  the  preparation  of  men  and  women 
to  do  the  more  mechanical  work  of  the  schoolroom. 

Of  course  all  the  men  educated  at  West  Point  do 
not  become  actual  military  leaders,  but  the  course  of 
education  is  such  as  to  make  of  every  man  a  possible 
leader — the  typical  quality  aimed  at  is  leadership. 
Similarly,  the  aim  of  normal  schools  of  the  higher 
type  is  leadership ;  and,  while  it  is  not  possible  for  all 
their  graduates  to  reach  this  high  vocation,  it  being 
dependent  on  circumstance  as  well  as  on  ability,  those 
who  fall  short  of  it  are  still  qualified  for  efiicient  ser- 
vice as  subordinates. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  prime,  the  funda- 
mental qualification  for  teaching  service  of  high  value 
is  scholarship.  It  is  true  that  there  are  some  poor 
teachers  who  are  good  scholars,  certain  moral  or 
mental  defects  operating  to  defeat  success ;  but  it  is 
certain  that  no  one  need  hope  for  permanent  and 
growing  success  in  the  teaching  profession  without  the 
instincts  and  habits,  and  some  of  the  attainments,  of 
the  real  scholar.     To  secure  and  retain  professional 


98  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

standing,  a  teacher  must  earn  the  confidence  and  re- 
spect of  the  better  educated  people  in  the  community 
in  which  lie  lives.  The  vocation  of  teaching  will  not 
become  a  recognized  profession  until  in  the  popular 
mind  the  terms  ' '  teacher  ' '  and  ' '  scholar  ' '  become 
synonymous.  It  is  a  very  significant  fact  that  the 
' '  trained ' '  teacher  adds  little  to  the  repute  of  the 
teaching  profession,  it  being  understood  that  * '  train- 
ing ' '  at  best  implies  mere  technique,  or  manual  dex- 
terity, and  carries  with  it  the  suspicion  of  shallow 
learning;  just  as  elocution,  the  noble  art  of  vocal 
expression  and  interpretation,  has  fallen  into  disrepute 
through  the  performances  of  young  persons  who  mis- 
take sound  for  sense  and  gesticulation  for  eloquence. 
The  spirit  of  the  age  has  set  in  strongly  towards  the 
mechanical,  the  empirical,  the  practical.  This  spirit 
has  become  rampant  in  normal  schools.  Teachers  are 
no  longer  to  be  educated,  but  ' '  trained ;  ' '  and  this 
''training"  is  to  be  done  in  "laboratories,"  where 
students  are  encouraged  to  operate  on  children.  The 
inevitable  but  deplorable  consequence  of  this  fad  is 
that  normal  schools  have  lost  the  respect  of  educated 
men,  and  it  is  very  commonly  taken  for  granted  that 
a  teacher  ' '  trained ' '  in  these  schools  is  a  man  or 
woman  of  slender  scholarship,  who  expects  to  succeed 


TEACHERS  TO  BE  EDUCATED  NOT  TRAINED   99 

by  '*  devices"  and  ''methods."  There  seems  to  be 
but  one  way  to  rescue  the  vocation  of  teaching  from 
this  false  position,  and  this  is  to  return  towards  the 
older  conception  that  a  teacher  must  be  a  gentleman 
and  a  scholar.  Over  the  entrance  of  every  normal 
school   there   should   be  this  legend:     "Teaching: 

THB  NOBLEST  OF  THE  PROFESSIONS,  BUT  THE  SORRIEST 
OF    TRADES." 

For  the  reasons  here  set  forth  in  outline  it  should 
be  the  purpose  of  a  normal  college  to  make  some 
degree  of  liberal  learning  the  professional  endowment 
of  each  graduate;  to  hold  fast  to  the  doctrine  that 
teachers  are  to  be  educated  rather  than  trained,  and 
that  scholarly  habits  and  instincts  are  of  more  value 
than  empirical  devices  and  methods.  Seeing  that  the 
teachers  are  the  real  guardians  of  the  State,  why 
should  we  set  for  them  a  lower  standard  of  attainment 
than  that  which  Plato  prescribes  for  the  guardians  of 
his  ideal  republic?  "Lovers,  not  of  a  part  of  wis- 
dom, but  of  the  whole ;  who  have  a  taste  for  every 
sort  of  knowledge  and  are  curious  to  learn  and  are 
never  satisfied ;  who  have  magnificence  of  mind,  and 
are  the  spectators  of  all  time  and  all  existence ;  who 
are  harmoniously  constituted ;  of  a  well-proportioned 
and  gracious  mind,  whose  own  nature  will  move  spon- 


100       THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS 

taneously  towards  the  true  being  of  everything ;  who 
have  a  good  memory,  and  are  quick  to  learn ;  noble, 
gracious,  the  friends  of  truth,  justice,  courage,  tem- 
perance. ' '  * 

Surely  this  ideal  is  scarcely  attainable  in  any  school 
of  the  present,  but  it  may  be  approached ;  and  who 
will  say  that  it  is  not  wise  to  lure  our  pupils  forward 
as  far  as  possible  on  this  pleasant  way  ? 

But  a  school  may  be  addicted  to  liberal  learning  of 
this  high  type  and  still  not  be  a  school  for  the  profes- 
sional education  of  teachers.  A  teacher  must  first  of 
all  be  a  scholar  both  in  attainment  and  spirit,  but  in 
addition  to  that  knowledge  which  every  well-educated 
man  should  possess,  he  must  also  have  that  special  and 
specific  knowledge  which  distinguishes  the  teacher 
from  the  mere  scholar.  All  the  professions  stand  in 
the  same  case.  The  lawyer,  the  physician,  the  clergy- 
man, must  be  scholars,  but  each  must  also  have  that 
special  knowledge  which  fits  him  for  the  practice  of 
his  profession — knowledge  which  educated  men  in 
general  need  not  have.  There  is  knowledge  of  this 
specific  sort  for  the  teacher's  professional  use,  and  it 
is  this  which  differentiates  a  normal  college  from  a 
college  of  the  ordinary  type.  The  history  and  the 
*  "  Republic  "  (Jowett),  475-487. 


TEACHERS  TO  BE  EDUCATED  NOT  TRAINED   101 

science  of  education ;  the  principles  of  school  organi- 
zation and  school  management ;  the  science  of  educa- 
tion values ;  school  hygiene  and  school  legislation ;  the 
construction  of  rational  courses  of  study  for  schools 
of  various  grades;  the  principles  of  school  supervi- 
sion— these  and  kindred  subjects  comprise  a  vast  field 
of  study  and  constitute  a  body  of  special  or  profes- 
sional knowledge  of  larger  volume  than  that  which 
enters  into  the  education  of  the  clergyman  or  the 
lawyer.  It  should  be  a  distinctive  aim  of  this  college 
to  communicate  to  its  students  as  much  of  this  knowl- 
edge as  its  teaching  force  makes  possible. 

It  is  believed  that  the  best  way  to  teach  a  liberal  art 
is  to  teach  the  essential  doctrines  and  principles  that 
underlie  that  art.  Law,  medicine  and  theology  are 
taught  on  this  plan.  It  is  legal  science  that  the 
student  learns  at  the  law  school ;  and  it  is  out  of  this 
science,  on  the  occasion  of  actual  experience,  that  he 
must  evolve  his  art.  At  the  medical  college  it  is  the 
science  of  medicine  that  the  student  learns.  He  may 
visit  patients  mth  his  preceptor,  and  may  witness 
surgical  operations  at  the  clinic ;  but  while  a  student, 
he  is  not  allowed  to  administer  medicine  to  the  sick, 
nor  to  practise  surgery  upon  the  wounded.  It  is  out 
of  his  science  and  his  observation,  when  his  profes- 


102  THE    EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

sional  course  is  terminated,  tliat  he  must  evolve  his 
art.  In  those  vocations  in  which  the  hand  is  princi- 
pally concerned,  the  handicrafts  and  trades,  an  art  is 
doubtless  best  learned  empirically,  by  assiduous  manual 
practice ;  but  in  those  higher  employments  where  the 
major  or  exclusive  effort  is  mental  or  spiritual,  an  art 
is  best  learned  by  first  compassing  tlie  science  which 
underlies  it.  ^N^ow  teaching  is  an  almost  purely  spirit- 
ual act  or  art,  scarcely  involving  the  manual  or  mus- 
cular dexterities  at  all,  but  in  its  real  essence  closely 
akin  to  the  supremest  of  human  arts,  the  art  of  lofty 
living ;  but  it  is  the  procedure  in  all  ethical  systems 
first  to  master  a  theory  of  life,  and  then  to  evolve  out 
of  it,  through  daily  experience,  a  corresponding  art  of 
living.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  pure  precept  or 
doctrine,  first  promulgated  and  learned  on  authority 
and  then  expanded  into  all  the  phases  of  righteous 
living.  ''First  know  and  then  do,"  was  one  of  the 
oldest  and  wisest  precepts  of  Greek  philosophy,  and  it 
would  be  well  if  we  could  turn  aside  from  such  mis- 
leading cant  as  "We  learn  to  do  by  doing,"  and 
recast  our  modes  of  teaching  on  the  basis  of  a  principle 
that  is  catholic  and  statesmanlike.  Whether  in  the 
making  of  a  horseshoe  or  in  the  construction  of  a 
treaty,  the  point  of  departure  is  knowledge;  and  as 


TEACHERS  TO  BE  EDUCATED  NOT  TRAINED      103 

we  rise  in  an  ascending  series  through  the  grades  of 
activity  lying  between  these  two  extremes,  the  em- 
pirical element  in  instruction  gradually  diminishes 
until  in  the  last  member  it  dwindles  to  the  zero  point. 
In  the  category  of  human  activities  teaching  is  to  be 
classified  with  statesmanship  rather  than  with  black- 
smithing. 

A  school  of  children  is  now  universally  regarded  as 
a  necessary  adjunct  to  a  normal  school.  In  most 
cases  this  supplementary  school  is  employed  as  an 
experimental  or  practice  school  (known  in^;^  de  siecle 
terms  as  a  "  laboratory  "),  in  which  students  are  sup- 
posed to  serve  a  sort  of  apprenticeship  in  teaching; 
while  in  other  cases  it  is  simply  a  well-organized  and 
well-taught  school,  in  which  students  observe  models 
of  good  school  work  as  done  by  competent  teachers, 
and  known  as  a  model  school,  or  school  of  observation. 
Such  a  school  should  be  employed,  not  as  a  practice 
school,  experimental  school,  or  ''laboratory,"  in 
which  students  experiment  on  children  and  thus 
"learn  to  do  by  doing,"  but  as  a  school  that  may 
serve  students  as  a  model  which,  in  whole  or  in  part, 
they  may  reproduce  in  their  own  practice,  and  which 
represents  to  them,  in  the  concrete,  what  the  theory  of 
the  school  had  before  represented  to  them  in  the  abstract. 


104  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

My  objections  to  the  use  of  the  supplementary 
school  as  a  **  laboratory  "  are  as  follows : 

A  school  taught  by  a  rapid  succession  of  pupil 
teachers  cannot  be  a  school  worthy  of  imitation  and 
reproduction. 

Insistence  on  technique  tends  to  defeat  the  culture 
aim  of  education.  If  study  is  to  beget  scholarly  in- 
stincts and  habits,  knowledge  must  be  pursued  for  its 
own  sake,  in  an  atmosphere  of  freedom  and  repose. 

The  formal  prescriptions  and  arid  criticisms  of  the 
training  school  foster  a  dreary  and  lifeless  routine  that 
defeats  the  main  purpose  of  education — the  love  of 
learning  and  the  quickening  of  the  intellectual  powers. 
Teachers  and  pupils  attain  freedom  only  through  truth, 
and  the  larger  the  truth  the  greater  the  freedom. 
Rules  have  their  place  lq  education,  but  they  should 
follow  principles,  not  precede  them,  and  much  less 
supersede  them.  When  teachers  are  very  ignorant, 
rules  are  doubtless  more  serviceable  than  general  prin- 
ciples ;  but  in  a  school  where  professional  teachers  are 
being  educated  such  ignorance  is  not  to  be  presumed. 

Except  under  extraordinary  conditions  an  experi- 
mental school  cannot  give  to  students  what  may  be 
caUed  an  experience  in  the  honest  sense  of  this  term, 
much  less  an  amount  of   practice  equivalent  to   an 


TEACHERS  TO  BE  EDUCATED  NOT  TRAINED   105 

apprenticeship  in  teaching.  After  what  term  of  ser- 
vice may  one  be  called  an  experienced  teacher?  The 
very  lowest  minimum  that  would  seem  to  me  to  justify 
such  a  declaration  would  be  ten  weeks  or  fifty  days  of 
five  hours  each,  making  two  hundred  and  fifty  hours 
in  the  aggregate.  Let  us  suppose  that  there  are  five 
teachers  employed  in  the  model  school,  each  devoting 
three  hours  a  day  to  practice  work.  This  would  yield 
seventy-five  hours  a  week,  three  hundred  hours  a 
month,  or  two  thousand  four  hundred  hours  a  year. 
Supposing  again  that  one  hundred  students  share  this 
opportunity,  the  maximum  experience  of  each  student 
is  only  twenty-four  hom-s,  or  less  than  five  days. 
This  is  probably  not  an  unfair  picture  of  the  average 
normal  school.  If  this  be  true,  it  would,  therefore, 
require  a  school  of  ten  times  this  teaching  force  to 
afford  the  students  the  minimum  of  practice  that  would 
constitute  an  experience  in  teaching.  I  know  of  no 
normal  school  provided  with  a  supplementary  school 
large  enough  to  furnish  its  pupils  with  enough  pracvice 
work  to  constitute  a  real  experience  in  teaching.  It 
is  almost  a  pure  illusion  to  regard  a  few  days  of  such 
practice  work  as  a  training  in  the  art  of  teaching. 

At  best,  the  conditions  under  which  this  experience 
is  gained  are  so  peculiar,  so  abnormal,  that  it  may 


106  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

fairly  be  questioned  whether  it  is  not  a  disadvantage 
rather  than  a  real  help.  There  is  no  virtue  in  expe- 
rience per  se  /  it  may  be  very  helpful  or  it  may  be 
very  harmful,  all  depending  on  the  conditions  undej 
which  it  takes  place.  In  order  that  a  young  teacher 
may  turn  his  experience  to  profitable  account,  the  fol- 
lowing conditions  should  be  supplied ;  The  school,  or 
the  class,  should  be  his  own ;  he  should  work  in  the 
light  of  some  clearly  conceived  principle ;  there  should 
be  present  to  his  mind  some  ideal  as  a  model  for  imi- 
tation ;  he  should  work  with  composure,  with  nothing 
to  stimulate  his  self -consciousness ;  whatever  criticism 
is  passed  on  his  work  should  be  sparing  and  judicious, 
and  administered  in  private. 

In  the  practice  school  the  class  taught  by  the  student 
is  not  his  own ;  it  very  recently  came  to  him  from  a 
fellow-student,  and  will  soon  pass  into  the  hands  of 
another  student.  He  teaches  in  the  presence  of  official 
critics,  pencil  and  note-book  in  hand,  who  are  present 
for  the  express  purpose  of  criticising,  and  who,  there- 
fore, rrntst  criticise.  These  critics  being  his  fellow- 
students,  what  probability  is  there  that  their  criticism 
will  be  just  and  wise  ?  Besides,  what  chance  is  there 
that  the  work  of  this  tyro  will  be  done  with  serenity 
and  composure  ?     What  veteran  teacher  would  expect 


TEACHERS  TO  BE  EDUCATED  NOT  TRAINED   107 

to  succeed  in  the  presence  of  four  or  five  official 
critics?  I  have  witnessed  this  practice  teaching  in 
normal  schools  of  the  best  class,  and  I  have  purposely 
understated  the  adverse  conditions  under  which  stu- 
dents attempt  to  learn  the  art  of  teaching  in  these 
pedagogical  ' '  laboratories. ' ' 

An  easy  calculation  has  shown  that  a  supplementary 
school  of  children  cannot  furnish  our  large  classes  with 
practice  work  enough  to  constitute  even  the  semblance 
of  real  experience,  but  it  is  large  enough  and  complete 
enough  to  serve  as  a  concrete  whole  to  be  observed, 
studied  and  imitated.  This  is  the  original  notion  and 
intent  of  a  normal  school ;  that  is,  a  school  organized 
and  taught  hi  such  a  way  as  to  serve  as  a  norma^ 
measure  or  pattern,  by  wliich  its  students  are  to  try 
their  own  schools.*  Naturally,  students  will  teach  as 
they  have  been  taught,  and  their  first  impulse  will  be 
to  make  their  schools  like  the  one  with  which  they  are 
most  familiar ;  and  if  the  students  of  a  normal  school 
were  all  destined  to  organize  normal  schools  of  their 
own,  no  other  rule  or  pattern  would  be  necessary; 
but  as  other  and  different  schools  will  require  their 
skill,    a   supplementary   school   for    observation   and 

*Normal  ScTiool,  a  school  whose  methods  of  instruction  are 
to  serve  as  a  model  for  imitation  (Webster). 


108  THE   EDUCATION   OF   TEACHERS 

study  becomes  a  necessity.  Without  such  a  corrective 
and  guide,  a  college  education  might  disqualify  a  stu- 
dent for  work  in  a  primary  or  a  secondary  school. 
The  importance  of  having  a  wholesome  school,  well 
graded,  well  governed  and  well  taught,  as  an  organi- 
zation to  be  studied  and  comprehended,  will  readily 
appear  when  it  is  recollected  that  probably  three- 
fourths  of  the  students  had  never  seen  such  a  school 
previous  to  their  entering  college.  To  all  such  a 
model  school  is  a  concrete,  living  object-lesson. 

In  the  school,  as  in  the  Church  and  in  the  State, 
there  is  the  conservative  party,  holding  that  the  roots 
of  all  true  progress  reach  far  back  into  the  soil  of  the 
past ;  that  there  should  be  no  break  in  the  continuity 
of  life ;  that  a  better  future  is  to  be  a  gradual  and 
equable  evolution  out  of  a  good  past;  that  the  first 
duty  of  the  reformer  is  to  interpret  with  becoming 
reverence  and  modesty  the.  past  achievements  of  the 
good  and  the  wise :  and  the  radical  party,  holding  that 
revolution  is  the  main  instrument  of  progress;  that 
the  first  and  main  duty  of  the  reformer  is  to  destroy ; 
that  each  new  generation  must  discover  for  itself  by 
experiment  and  induction  the  principles  of  human 
conduct;  and  that  universal  unrest  is  the  sign  and 
condition  of  human  progress. 


TEACHERS  TO  BE  EDUCATED  NOT  TRAINED   109 

Listening  merely  to  the  noise  that  is  made  in  the 
educational  world  by  the  loud-voiced  and  not  over- 
modest  reformer,  we  might  conclude  that  the  school 
is  in  a  very  bad  way,  that  nothing  has  really  been  set- 
tled in  the  way  of  principles  and  methods,  but  that 
the  whole  scholastic  regime  is  to  be  created  de  novo, 
A  striking  phenomenon  of  the  times  is  a  rapid  succes- 
sion of  educational  fads,  some  philosophical,  some 
methodical,  some  enduring  for  a  season,  others  disap- 
pearing after  a  fitful  effort  to  maintain  an  existence. 
A  favorite  vocable  to  conjure  with  has  been  "Apper- 
ception." It  is  sufficiently  vague  to  be  attractive,  and 
sufficiently  indefinite  to  accommodate  different  shades 
of  interpretation.  Competing,  but  less  fortunate  fads, 
have  been  ' '  Concentration, "  "  Interest, ' '  and  '  'Con- 
gruity."  These  form  a  sprightly  troop  of  hobbies, 
each  for  a  season  the  favorite  of  an  enthusiastic  group, 
but  all  the  subjects  of  unforeseen  and  vexatious  mis- 
haps. No  one  can  predict  the  events  of  the  coming 
season,  but  the  course  will  certainly  have  its  varied 
attractions.  This  is  the  way  we  go ;  but  what  a  pity 
that  the  noblest  of  the  professions  should  be  subject 
to  such  ignoble  conditions  of  growth ! 

Just  now  the  hobby  of  the  normal  school  is  the  so- 
called  ' '  laboratory. ' '    This  term,  deliberately  chosen, 


110       THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS 

marks  the  height  or  the  depth  of  the  experimental 
method  as  applied  to  education.  The  name  is  patheti- 
cally suggestive.  Children  are  material^  and  on  this 
material  young  men  and  women  are  to  operate  for  the 
double  purpose  of  making  discoveries  in  infant  psy- 
chology, and  of  learning  the  art  of  teaching  by  the 
experimental  method.  As  vivisection,  so  much  in 
vogue  in  biology,  rediscovers  from  year  to  year,  at  the 
cost  of  numberless  lives,  what  is  well  known  in  physi- 
ology; so  the  ''pedagogical  laboratory"  rediscovers 
truths  in  the  mental  life  that  in  one  form  or  another 
have  been  well  known  for  centuries.  It  is  barely  con- 
ceivable that,  after  countless  experiments  and  disasters, 
some  essentially  new  truth  may  be  added  to  what  is 
already  known ;  but  it  is  infinitely  more  probable  that 
in  each  bushel  of  new  chaff  there  will  be  found  only 
the  one  grain  that  in  kind  is  as  old  as  the  Pharaohs 
and  their  mummies. 

It  is  so  easy  to  assume  that  there  are  no  ancient 
landmarks  which  our  forefathers  have  set !  So  modem 
and  so  scientific  for  each  callow  scholar  to  mark  off  the 
highways  of  knowledge  with  milestones  of  his  own  de- 
vising !  But  the  supreme  pity  is  that  this  laboratory 
method  as  applied  to  education  may  become  sporadic, 
and  so,  little  by  little,  unsettle  and  corrupt  public 


TEACHERS  TO  BE  EDUCATED  NOT  TRAINED   111 

opinion  as  it  bears  on  human  interests  of  such  infinite 
moment  that  no  method  should  be  tolerated  which  is 
not  conservative  and  cautious.  Seeing  that  education 
is  the  architectonic  or  master  art,  it  should  be  the  most 
conservative  of  all  the  arts ;  of  all  human  institutions 
the  school  should  be  the  one  the  least  addicted  to 
change,  the  least  exposed  to  innovations.  To  be  con- 
servative is  to  be  neither  stationary  nor  retrogressive, 
but  to  be  wisely  circumspect  and  cautious  while  adapt- 
ing old  methods  to  new  needs.  It  is  the  school  that  is 
piloting  the  race  across  the  centuries,  and  its  hands 
should  ever  be  held  firmly  on  the  helm,  and  its  eyes 
steadily  fixed  on  the  compass.  In  such  a  voyage  ex- 
periments in  navigation  are  not  only  perilous,  but 
criminal. 


EDUCATION  ACCORDING  TO  NATURE 


VI 

EDUCATION  ACCOKDING  TO  NATUEE 

He  would  do  the  world  no  mean  service  who  would 
write  an  impartial  history  of  fads,  showing  the  rise, 
progress,  termination  and  results  of  each.  Such  a 
history  would  doubtless  discover  to  us  the  fact  that 
even  the  thinking  world  is  addicted  to  hobby-riding, 
and  that  successive  fads  are  the  rungs  of  a  ladder  on 
which  thought  ascends  from  lower  conceptions  to 
higher,  and  thus  gains  wider  and  wider  horizons  of 
truth.  What  were  nominalism  and  realism  but  phi- 
losophical fads,  engrossing  men's  thoughts  for  a  sea- 
son, kindling  the  controversial  spirit  up  to  the  fight- 
ing point,  then  waning  in  interest,  and  finally  giving 
place  to  other  fads?  Phlogiston,  Malthusianism,  Dar- 
winianism,  the  nebular  hypothesis,  phrenology.  Chris- 
tian science  and  hypnotism  are  phenomena  of  the  same 
sort.  These  are  all  "guesses  at  truth."  Their  devo- 
tees, indeed,  regard  them  as  truth  itself,  but  successive 
thinkers  finally  separate  the  grains  of  pure  metal  from 
the  larger  volume  of  alloy,  garner  the  precious  residue 
into  the  general  storehouse  of  science  and  then  make 
a  venture  at  new  guesses.     The  line  of  Sherman's 


116  THE    EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

march  to  the  sea  is  now  marked  by  abandoned  forts, 
exploded  shells  and  half-filled  trenches.  So  the 
triumphal  march  of  thought  is  marked  by  abandoned 
hypotheses,  exploded  theories,  and  empty  conjectures. 

The  same  phenomenon  is  observable  in  the  special 
science  to  which  we  are  addicted.  Men  of  my  years 
have  lived  through  a  succession  of  educational  fads, 
and  our  predecessors,  near  and  remote,  were  doomed 
to  traverse  a  similar  route.  Within  our  own  time  ob- 
ject-teaching rose  in  the  East,  if  not  as  the  sun,  at  least 
as  a  star  of  the  first  magnitude,  but  its  distinctive  light 
has  been  lost  in  its  passage  across  the  horizon.  Then 
appeared  other  lights,  from  time  to  time,  great  and 
small,  to  which  we  did  homage,  such  as  manual  train- 
ing and  the  inductive  method;  and  now  the  suns  or 
meteors  that  are  in  full  blaze  on  our  pedagogic  firma- 
ment are  "concentration,"  "apperception,"  "interest," 
"congruity"  and  "a  pot  of  green  feathers." 

"VVe  are  not  to  forget  that  the  monitorial  system 
swept  over  the  country  eighty  years  ago  like  an  epi- 
demic, and  that  it  took  such  a  stalwart  as  De  Witt 
Clinton  clear  off  his  feet.  The  head  that  could  project 
the  Erie  canal  could  also  utter  such  a  wild  prophecy 
as  this:  "I  recognize  in  Lancaster  the  benefactor  of 
the  human  race.    I  consider  his  system  as  creating  a 


EDUCATION  ACCORDING  TO  NATURE     117 

new  era  in  education — as  a  blessing  sent  down  from 
heaven  to  redeem  the  poor  and  distressed  of  this  world 
from  the  power  and  dominion  of  ignorance."*  Re- 
turning to  the  figure  just  employed,  Lancastrianism 
was  a  blazing  comet,  creating  a  profound  sensation  at 
the  time  of  its  appearance;  but  it  speedily  burned  out, 
leaving  hardly  as  much  as  a  poor  cinder  by  way  of  re- 
membrance. 

In  place  of  fad  I  might  have  used  the  word  craze, 
or  hobby,  but  fad  is  the  newer  term,  and  I  use  it  to 
denote  a  wide  class  of  phenomena,  social,  political, 
philosophical,  educational  and  even  religious.  I  use 
the  term  in  a  more  serious  sense  than  the  ordinary,  to 
indicate  a  phase  of  thought  that,  while  serious,  is  at 
the  same  time  partial  and  shallow,  and,  in  its  appear- 
ance and  disappearance,  epidemic. 

It  will  be  readily  guessed  that  I  include  "Education 
According  to  Xature,"  or  "Follow  !N"ature,''  among 
educational  fads.  In  the  sense  just  stated,  I  do;  only 
"Xature"  must  be  considered  as  the  most  respectable 
of  these  fads,  by  reason  of  its  antiquity  and  longevity; 
though  sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  Joseph  Payne  and 

♦S.  S.  Randall,  "History  of  the  Common  Schools  of  New 
York,"  p.  28. 


118  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

Other  imitators  of  Mr.  Spencer,  the  whole  treatment  is 
little  better  than  cant^ — ^shallow  and  offensive. 

The  precept,  "Follow  Nature,"  is  prevalent  in 
ethics,  in  education,  and  in  medicine,  where  Xature  is 
set  up  as  a  criterion  of  right  and  wrong,  of  true  and 
false.  A  practice  that  is  supposed  to  be  in  conformity 
with  Nature  is  thereby  proved  to  be  right,  or  true; 
while  a  practice  that  can  be  shown  to  be  contrary  to 
Nature  is  assumed  to  be  wrong,  or  false.  Thus,  Aris- 
totle defends  slavery  because  it  is  "natural,"  some  men 
being  bom  to  rule,  others  to  serve,  some  being  strong, 
others  weak;  while  he  condemns  usury,  or  the  taking 
of  interest,  because  it  is  "unnatural."  Flocks  and 
crops  springing  from  the  soil  are  wealth  proper,  and 
for  convenience  they  may  be  converted  into  money; 
but  to  produce  money  from  money,  a  dead  thing  from 
a  dead  thing,  is  unnatural,  and  therefore  wrong. 
"Down  to  the  Norman  conquest  the  Britons  had  ^living 
money'  and  'dead  money,'  the  former  being  slaves  and 
cattle,  the  latter  metal."  Our  modem  temperance 
reformers  use  the  same  argument.  Alcohol  is  an  evil, 
because  it  is  produced  by  the  decay  or  rotting  of  a 
natural  product,  as  corn,  rye,  or  wheat;  though  just 


EDUCATION  ACCORDING  TO  NATURE     119 

why  vinegar  should  escape  condemnation  is  not  at  all 
clear. 

Peter  the  Great  suffered  a  similar  delusion  when  he 
ordered  his  naval  cadets  to  use  sea  water  for  drinking 
purposes.  Is  not  the  sea  the  natural  domain  of  the 
sailor,  just  as  the  land  is  the  natural  domain  of  the 
soldier?  The  sailor  must  therefore  adapt  himself  to 
his  environment;  he  must  draw  his  sustenance  from 
the  elements  on  which  he  lives.  Had  Peter  taken  wise 
counsel  before  giving  this  order,  he  might  have  been 
reminded  that  it  was  a  scientific  error  to  include  sailors 
and  saltwater  fish  in  the  same  category;  but  he  was 
following  ^N^ature,  as  he  supposed,  and  his  cadets  had 
to  perish. 

The  same  false  analogy  betrayed  John  Locke  into 
his  "hardening  process.''    Men  in  a  "state  of  nature" 

wear  no  shoes,  and  though  their  clothing  is  very  scant, 

« 
even  in  winter,  they  adapt  themselves  to  rigors  of  tem- 
perature without  harm;  my  young  gentleman  should 
therefore  follow  Xature  rather  than  art  in  the  matter 
of  clothing,  and  so  should  wear  no  shoes;  but  as  he  is 
compelled  to  live  in  society,  we  will  strike  a  compro- 
mise, and  he  may  wear  shoes,  provided  they  are  plenti- 
fully supplied  with  holes. 

The  phrase  "Education  According  to  J^ature"  at 


120        THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS 

once  suggests  the  name  of  Rousseau,  for  it  was  lie  who, 
in  his  "Emile,"  fairly  set  the  fashion  for  subsequent 
writers  on  education,  great  and  small.  Mr.  Spencer 
adopts  the  new  fashion,  and  his  pages  are  overshad- 
owed with  capital  N's.  He  accepts  the  new  mythol- 
ogy, writes  out  a  new  creed,  and  virtually  founds  a 
new  school  of  theorists.  'No  theologian  was  ever  more 
dogmatic.  He  postulates  E'ature  as  an  infallible  guide, 
and  then  deduces  educational  processes  with  almost 
mathematical  precision.  Whatever  will  not  fit  into 
his  system,  as  history,  he  conveniently  rejects. 

Rousseau  was  essentially  a  pessimist,  placing  the 
Golden' Age  in  the  distant  past  rather  than  in  a  dis- 
tant future.  Civilization,  so-called,  was  full  of  perver- 
sions and  defilements;  the  arts  and  sciences  were  in- 
struments of  corruption;  and  the  only  salvation  for  the 
race  was  a  return  to  primitive  simplicity  and  purity. 
As  the  nfain  principle  of  political  philosophy  was  the 
assumption  that  society  was  retrograding  because  it 
was  receding  from  I^ature,  he  readily  adopted  the  con- 
ception that  the  salvation  of  society  lay  in  a  new  sys- 
tem of  education,  whose  purpose  should  be  to  bring 
men  back  to  !N'ature,  and  thus  to  purity  and  to  peace. 
The  myth  Nature  dominated  Rousseau's  thought,  or 
rather  his  feeling;  for  he  felt  rather  than  reasoned. 


EDUCATION  ACCORDING  TO  NATURE     121 

Everything  must  be  "natural,"  even  his  children.  Like 
Mr.  Spencer,  though  in  another  manner,  Rousseau 
was  a  rhetorician,  enamored  of  the  sound  of  his  own 
voice;  such  rhetoric  is  always  fatal  to  logic.  He  car- 
ries conviction,  as  the  advocate  or  the  orator  does,  by 
enlisting  the  feelings  on  his  side  of  the  controversy. 
Hence,  his  "Emile"  is  a  romance,  and  the  characters 
that  appear  in  it  are  as  unreal  as  any  that  one  may  find 
in  modern  fiction.  And  yet  it  is  not  a  contradiction  to 
say  of  it  what  Rousseau  himself  said  of  the  "Repub- 
lic:" C^est  le  plus  beau  traite  d^ education  qu^on  a 
jamais  fait.^^ 

Though  Rousseau  nowhere  defines  Mature,  it  is  not 
difficult  to  understand  the  general  sense  in  which  he 
uses  this  term.  His  whole  creed  is  virtually  contained 
in  the  opening  paragraph  of  the  "Emile":  "Every- 
thing is  good  as  it  comes  from  the  hands  of  the  Author 
of  Xature;  but  everything  degenerates  in  the  hands 
of  man.  He  forces  one  country  to  nourish  the  produc- 
tions of  another;  one  tree  to  bear  the  fruits  of  another. 
He  mingles  and  confounds  the  climates,  the  elements, 
the  seasons;  he  mutilates  his  dog,  his  horse  and  his 
slave;  he  overturns  everything;  he  loves  deformity, 
monsters ;  he  will  have  nothing  as  Nature  made  it,  not 
even  man;  like  a  saddle  horse,  man  must  be  trained 


122  THE    EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

for  man's  service;  lie  must  be  made  over  according  to 
his  fancy,  like  a  tree  in  his  garden." 

In  other  terms,  restore  the  world  to  the  condition  it 
was  in  before  it  began  to  be  modified  by  man's  agency, 
and  we  have  it  in  its  ideal  state,  "the  state  of  Nature." 
Relieve  a  modern  garden  from  human  interference, 
and  it  will  soon  revert  to  a  state  of  nature,  l^atural 
fruit  is  better  than  fruit  that  has  been  cultivated.  The 
ideal  horse  is  the  wild  horse.  The  ideal  man  is  the  red 
Indian.  Education  is  not  an  ascent  from  wildness, 
but  a  return  towards  wildness.  Eousseau  admits  men 
to  his  state  of  Nature  provided  they  make  no  attempt 
to  refashion  one  another  or  to  modify  their  environ- 
ment. The  moment  they  begin  to  do  this,  perversion 
sets  in  and  art  usurps  the  place  of  Nature.  This  per- 
version of  Nature  by  art  has  gone  to  the  greatest  length 
in  cities.  Hence,  relatively,  we  return  to  Nature  when 
we  go  from  the  city  into  the  country,  as  from  Paris  to 
the  woods  of  Montmorency. 

How  much  of  this  is  rhetoric,  and  how  much  sober 
conviction,  it  is  doubtless  impossible  to  tell  with  any 
exactness.  In  construing  Rousseau's  theory  we  must 
make  some  allowance  for  temperament,  and  also  for 
the  extravagances  into  which  reformers  invariably 
fall.     Over-statement  is  an  element  in  a  reformer's 


EDUCATION  ACCORDING  TO  NATURE     123 

outfit,  whether  it  takes  the  form  of  a  satire,  as  in 
Rabelais  and  Dickens,  or  of  fiction  and  fancy,  as  in 
Rousseau.  All  an  interpreter  can  do  is  to  trace  the 
main  lines  of  the  argument  and  show  the  limitations 
of  the  theory  by  typical  examples.  This  I  will  attempt 
to  do  in  the  sequel. 

The  practical  application  of  Rousseau's  theory  is 
well  exhibited  in  his  doctrine  of  discipline  by  natural 
consequences.  Through  wilfulness,  Emile  breaks  the 
windows  of  his  chamber.  His  father  replaces  them, 
but  the  boy  again  breaks  them.  The  transgressor  is 
thereupon  turned  over  to  the  relentless  laws  of  Nature. 
The  windows  are  not  replaced,  but  the  boy  is  confined 
to  his  room,  where  the  cold  wind  blows  on  him  by  day 
and  by  night,  thus  exposing  him,  not  only  to  discom- 
fort, but  to  danger;  he  might  take  a  severe  cold  and 
die  of  pneumonia.  The  great  danger  of  this  exposure 
occurs  to  Rousseau,  but  he  promptly  replies  that  it  is 
better  to  die  of  a  cold  than  to  be  a  fool !  In  the  case 
of  Emile,  however,  matters  do  not  come  to  this  sad 
pass,  but  he  is  finally  conquered  by  suffering  the  dis- 
agreeable consequences  of  his  own  folly  and  reforms 
in  a  manner  befitting  the  author's  theory. 

The  application  of  this  doctrine  is  extended  still 
further.    To  cure  Emile  of  his  vanity  and  forwardness, 


124  THE   EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

lie  is  allowed  to  compete  with  a  professional  juggler, 
who  readily  makes  him  the  laughing-stock  of  a  jeering 
crowd.  To  teach  him  worldly  wisdom  and  caution,  he 
is  allowed  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  sharpers  and  cheats, 
who  fleece  him  in  fine  fashion;  and,  finally,  to  make 
him  virtuous,  he  is  allowed  to  fall  into  vice — he  is 
drawn  through  the  mire  in  order  that  he  may  after- 
ward be  washed  and  experience  the  sensation  of  being 
clean.  In  outline,  this  is  Emile's  course  in  experi- 
mental ethics. 

Though  Rousseau,  as  before  noted,  does  not  define 
Nature,  he  makes  it  quite  easy  for  us  to  infer  what  he 
means  by  the  term,  and  a  proximate  definition  would 
stand  about  as  follows:  The  material  world  affected 
by  physical  forces  (gravity,  heat,  light,  electricity, 
etc.,)  and  inhabited  by  uncivilized  men. 

For  purposes  of  right  education,  Emile  is  to  be 
pushed  as  far  back  as  possible  into  this  primitive  and 
uncorrupted  world;  and  society  itself,  in  order  to  be 
rescued  from  growing  corruption,  must  make  a  return 
toward  this  primitive  simplicity  and  perfection.  This 
was  Rousseau's  ideal  education  and  his  ideal  state  of 
society;  but  he  had  the  sense  to  know  that  these  ideals 
were  impracticable,  and  so  he  accepts  a  compromise. 
He  uses  consummate  art  to  reproduce  a  quasi  state  of 


EDUCATION  ACCORDING  TO  NATURE     125 

mature,  but  this  more  than  Herculean  effort  involves 
him  in  countless  contradictions,  absurdities  and  follies. 
Mr.  Spencer  personifies  Mature,  and  thus  carries  the 
myth  to  its  most  perfect  development.  With  him 
Nature  is  physical  force  personified,  and  education  is 
experience,  or  contact  with  environment.  His  general 
theory  may  be  summarized  as  follows:  The  individual 
of  to-day  must  be  educated  just  as  the  race  was  edu- 
cated historically;  the  race  was  self -instructed  through 
experience;  the  individual  must  therefore  rely  on  his 
personal  experience  for  his  knowledge  and  training. 
As  Nature  was  the  tutor  of  the  race,  so  Nature  must 
be  the  tutor  of  each  individual  of  the  race.  Of  course, 
in  accordance  with  this  theory,  the  knowledge  that  is 
of  most  worth  is  science,  for  science  has  grown  out  of 
the  experiences  of  the  race — ^is,  in  the  Aristotelian 
sense,  a  natural  product — and  is  knowledge  that  can 
be  reproduced  and  verified  by  each  succeeding  genera- 
tion of  learners.  Past  experiences  constituting  what 
is  commonly  known  as  history  cannot  be  thus  repro- 
duced and  verified,  and  therefore  history  is  not  knowl- 
edge proper.  And  as  literature — a  play  of  Shake- 
speare, for  example — cannot  be  rediscovered  or  repro- 
duced according  to  the  Spencerian  dogma,  there  is  no 
natural  place  in  this  system  for  literature  and  kindred 


126  THE    EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

subjects.  Literature  is  too  mucli  tainted  with  art  to  fit 
into  a  scheme  of  education  according  to  Kature. 

Like  Kousseau,  Mr.  Spencer  is  clearest  when  he  ap- 
plies his  hypothesis  to  moral  education.  Prior  to  ex- 
perience, an  infant,  if  permitted,  will  put  its  little 
fingers  in  the  flame  of  a  candle.  Let  it  do  this,  advises 
Mr.  Spencer,  even  though  a  painful  blister  is  the  conse- 
quence. According  to  the  same  method  the  child  may 
lay  hold  of  hot  fire-bars  and  spill  boiling  water  on  its 
tender  skin.  In  this  fashion  the  infant  is  being  edu- 
cated through  experience  by  its  godmother,  Nature. 
This  is  a  reappearance  of  Rousseau's  doctrine  of  conse- 
quences. From  this  point  of  view  education  may  be 
defined  as  experience  coming  from  contact  with  matter 
and  with  physical  force,  or  in  shorter  phrase,  with  one's 
environment. 

It  may  be  urged  against  Rousseau  and  his  disciples 
that  the  Golden  Age  of  society  is  not  in  the  remote 
past,  but  in  the  future — that  humanity  is  making  a 
forward  movement,  slow,  perhaps,  but  sure;  that  what 
we  call  civilization  will  not  be  abandoned  for  savagery; 
that  cities,  Rousseau's  especial  abomination,  are  both  a 
product  and  an  agent  of  civilization;  and  that  his  as- 
sumption of  the  nobility  of  primitive  man  is  an  unsup- 


EDUCATION  ACCORDING  TO  NATURE      12T 

ported  fiction.  The  untutored  savage,  as  seen  and 
described  by  travelers,  is  Nature's  handiwork,  a  fair 
specimen  of  what  she  can  do  in  the  way  of  educating 
when  unassisted  by  human  art.  It  has  not  been  ob- 
served, however,  that  men  are  made  either  happier  or 
better  by  being  allowed  to  revert  to  a  state  of  nature. 

Again,  a  proper  conception  of  !N^ature  will  include 
man,  his  endowments  and  his  works.  Is  not  man  as 
natural  a  product  as  a  beaver  or  a  horse  ?  If  instinct 
is  a  natural  endowment  of  the  beaver,  why  are  not 
reason,  imagination  and  language  also  natural  endow- 
ments of  man?  Why  make  a  radical  distinction  be- 
tween the  defenses  built  by  beavers  and  the  defenses 
built  by  men?  Why  is  it  less  natural  and  right  for 
men  to  live  in  communities  than  for  bees  and  ants? 
Why  is  not  a  poem  as  natural  a  product  as  a  bird's 
nest? 

When  Mr.  Spencer  asserts  that  "humanity  has  pro- 
gressed solely  by  self-instruction,"*  he  either  falls  into 
an  obvious  error  or  he  uses  terms  in  an  extraordinary 
sense.  It  would  be  as  true  to  assert  that  humanity  has 
progressed  solely  by  capitalization.  Men  capitalize 
their  experiences  in  labor-saving  machines  and  in  pro- 
verbs.    One  generation  invents  a  snare,  a  trap,  or  a 


128  THE   EDUCATION   OF   TEACHERS 

hook;  the  next  generation  is  spared  the  effort  oi 
making  these  inventions,  but  simply  accepts  and  uses 
them,  and  devotes  the  time  and  effort  thus  saved  to  the 
making  of  other  inventions.  Experience  begets  wis- 
dom, this  wisdom  is  embodied  or  capitalized  in  pro- 
verbs,  and  then  these  proverbs  serve  other  men  for 
warning  and  guidance  in  place  of  wasteful  experience. 
Humanity  has  never  squandered  its  time  in  reinvent- 
ing and  rediscovering.  The  "genesis  of  knowledge 
in  the  race"  takes  place  through  capitalization  and  dis- 
covery, and  thus  understood,  it  is  quite  true  that  the 
individual  must  follow  the  same  course.  Mr.  Bain  is 
evidently  right  in  declaring  that  the  assumption  that 
the  child's  education  is  to  be  in  the  main  a  process  of 
discovery  or  of  rediscovery  is  a  "bold  fiction."  In 
some  subjects,  as  mathematics  and  physical  science, 
rediscovery  is  conceivable,  but,  in  the  main,  impracti- 
cable; while  in  others,  as  history  and  literature,  it  is 
impossible,  if  not  inconceivable.  Mr.  Spencer's  hy- 
pothesis of  ^Nature  as  the  true  guide  in  human  educa- 
tion easily  runs  into  the  redudio  ad  ahsurdum.  Let 
us  see  where  this  specious  hypothesis  will  land  us. 

This  !N'ature  is  simply  brute  matter  or  brute  force, 
absolutely  divested  of  feeling,  without  sympathy  and 


EDUCATION  ACCORDING  TO  NATURE     129 

without  pity;  the  teacher  should  therefore  be  the  per- 
sonification  of  brute,  unfeeling  force. 

In  her  distribution  of  pains  and  penalties  Nature 
never  distinguishes  between  innocence  and  deliberate 
transgression — the  same  punishment  falls  on  the  in- 
fant as  on  the  hardened  criminal;  the  teacher  is  there- 
fore to  take  no  account  of  motive,  but  must  regard  the 
fact  of  transgression  only. 

Nature  makes  no  distinction  between  a  block  of 
wood  that  falls  from  the  roof  of  a  house  and  a  child 
that  tumbles  from  a  chamber  window — for  her  use 
they  are  merely  two  pieces  of  matter,  which  she  treats 
in  the  same  manner,  or,  if  she  makes  any  distinction 
at  all,  she  favors  the  block  of  wood,  life  and  feeling 
here  being  at  a  discount;  children  should  therefore  be 
manipulated,  shaped  and  governed  as  though  they  were 
inert,  senseless  matter. 

There  are  no  gradations  in  Nature's  lessons;  she 
deigns  no  explanation,  she  is  as  silent  as  a  sphinx. 
The  graded  school  is  therefore  unnatural,  and  the 
teacher  should  be  merely  a  stem  and  silent  monitor. 

I  call  attention  to  these  absurdities,  not  because 

they  are  sanctioned  by  Rousseau  and  Spencer,  but 

because  they  show  the  near  limitations  of  this  specious 

doctrine  of  Nature.    Both  these  writers  set  up  Nature 
9 


130  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

as  a  criterion  and  guide,  and  they  quote  her  in  a  free 
and  easy  way  as  standard  authority  for  certain  educa- 
tional processes.  Their  argument  runs  in  this  wise: 
"Nature  does  so  and  so;  therefore  we  should  do  so  and 
so."  But,  evidently,  this  Nature  does  some  things 
that  no  sane  or  moral  man  should  ever  think  of  doing. 
Mr.  Spencer  allows  a  little  child  of  three  or  four  years 
to  lay  hold  of  hot  fire-bars  with  his  little  hands,  but 
objects  to  his  playing  with  an  open  razor.  It  is  plain, 
therefore,  that  Nature  is  not  to  be  followed  at  all 
lengths.  Who  is  to  decide  how  far,  or  in  what  cases, 
we  are  to  follow  Nature?  Some  who  have  had  larger 
experience  in  the  management  of  children  than  Mr. 
Spencer  has  probably  had,  would  stop  short  of  the  fire- 
bars and  the  boiling  water.  It  is  a  reasonable  pre- 
sumption, therefore,  that  we  are  not  here  dealing  with 
science,  but  with  opinion;  and  that  it  is  an  open  ques- 
tion, not  only  how  far  we  should  follow  Nature,  but 
whether  we  should  follow  her  at  all;  seeing  how  un- 
natural she  sometimes  is  and  how  questionable  some  of 
her  proceedings  are. 

Instead  of  accepting  the  poetical  fiction  that  Nature 
(still  using  the  term  in  the  Spencerian  sense)  is  our 
goddess  and  our  guide,  some  of  us  who  have  not  the 
fear  of  the  new  mythology  before  our  eyes  would 


EDUCATION  ACCORDING  TO  NATURE      131 

respectfully  maintain  that  this  same  Nature,  in  some 
of  her  work,  should  be  disinfected,  deodorized,  and 
otherwise  prevented  from  doing  her  worst.  Only  give 
her  a  fair  chance,  and  Xature,  in  the  form  of  scarla- 
tina, diphtheria,  or  cholera,  will  decimate  whole  vil- 
lages and  cities.  In  such  and  all  similar  cases  Nature 
is  a  remorseless,  relentless  fury,  who  is  to  be  pursued, 
captured  and  thrown  headlong  into  the  sea  and  mis- 
erably drowned.  In  other  terms,  and  dropping  the 
figure,  the  joint  work  of  Christianity,  science  and 
civilization  is  to  subdue  Nature,  to  make  her  man's 
servant  rather  than  man's  master,  to  make  her  minister 
to  his  joys  rather  than  to  his  sorrows.  There  is  to  be 
a  new^  earth,  rescued  from  Nature  and  transformed  by 
human  art,  and  it  is  to  be  peopled  by  a  race  recreated 
by  education  and  the  gospel;  and  throughout  this 
secular  process  the  dominant  force  is  to  be  the  human 
intelligence  and  the  human  will.  The  Nature  that 
we  are  to  follow  is  "Nature  humanized,"  or  "Nature 
informed  with  humanity,"  to  adopt  the  happy  phrase 
of  Kichard  Grant  White. 

So  far,  the  treatment  of  my  theme  has  been  nega- 
tive, in  the  main;  the  purpose  being  to  show  that  the 
hypothesis  of  Nature  as  a  faultless  paragon  is  subject 
to  grave  Kmitations;  that  this  general  doctrine  is  very 


132  THE   EDUCATION   OF   TEACHERS 

far  from  being  safe  and  wholesome;  and  that,  like  all 
other  fads,  it  seizes  upon  a  fraction  of  a  truth,  fancies 
that  it  is  the  whole  truth,  and  then  proclaims  the  new 
marvel  to  the  world  with  a  cackling  of  delight. 

I  will  now  venture  on  a  more  positive  treatment  of 
this  theme,  and,  putting  entirely  aside  whatever  is 
mystical  or  mythical,  will  try  to  state  in  plain  prose 
some  of  the  things  that  seem  to  be  implied  in  education 
according  to  Nature.  I  hope  my  readers  will  do  me 
the  favor  to  remember  that  my  purpose  in  this  dis- 
cussion is  not  controversy,  but  the  discovery  of  truth. 
I  aim  at  nothing  more  than  interpretation.  The 
writers  who  invoke  Nature  so  persistently  and  so  freely 
make  no  attempt  whatever  to  define  the  term;  they 
leave  their  readers  to  interpret  the  word  for  them- 
selves. 

In  dealing  with  the  precept  "Follow  Nature,"  the 
task  of  the  interpreter  is  twofold:  (1)  To  determine 
what  Nature  is  and  what  she  does;  and  (2)  to  deter- 
mine whether  it  is  wise  to  follow  her  in  the  cases 
stated.  At  this  stage  of  educational  science  it  is  high 
time  to  disregard  fiction,  myth  and  personification, 
and  to  give  to  this  vague  term  an  articulate  meaning. 
My  interpretation  of  the  term  Nature  may  not  be  the 
correct  one,  but  it  is  an  honest  effort  to  reach  the  truth. 


EDUCATION  ACCORDING  TO  NATURE      133 

Those  who  reject  any  given  interpretation  owe  it  to 
the  cause  they  are  attempting  to  serve  to  state  in  plain 
terms  their  own  interpretation. 

The  one  word  that  most  nearly  interprets  Nature, 
as  it  seems  to  me,  is  experience,  and  to  follow  Nature 
is  to  make  experience  the  sole  or  the  main  source  of 
our  knowledge  and  discipline.  It  is  usually  said  that 
there  are  two  sources  of  knowledge — experience  and 
language;  but  the  precept  "Follow  Nature"  forbids 
the  intervention  of  language  as  a  source  of  knowledge, 
and  makes  the  process  of  learning  a  course  in  personal 
experience.  Experimental  knowledge,  it  is  claimed, 
is  the  only  real  knowledge;  all  we  truly  know  is  in- 
cluded within  the  circle  of  our  personal  experiences, 
of  our  sensations,  and  of  the  inferences  we  draw  from 
them.  Rousseau  sequesters  Emile,  so  far  as  possible, 
from  the  society  of  men,  in  order  that  he  may  be 
tutored  by  Nature;  that  is,  by  experience.  Instead  of 
the  mother,  Mr.  Spencer  makes  the  candle  flame,  the 
fire-bars,  and  boiling  water  the  teachers  of  the  child.* 
Primitive  man,  we  are  told,  had  no  teacher  but  expe- 
rience; the  successive  generations  of  men  have  gained 
their  knowledge  in  the  same  way;  experience  is  there- 


134        THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS 

fore  the  typical  process  of  human  education,  the  only 
royal  road  to  learning. 

A  few  tests  applied  to  this  theory  would  seem  to 
show  its  general  unsoundness.  Is  history  knowledge? 
On  the  hypothesis  that  the  real  test  of  knowledge  is 
experience,  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  historical 
knowledge,  for  we  cannot  be  brought  into  personal 
relations  with  the  events  which  have  given  rise  to  his- 
tory. 

Is  our  knowledge  of  geography  limited  to  what  we 
have  learned  by  travel  ?  May  we  be  said  to  know  any- 
thing of  the  countries  we  have  never  visited?  I  once 
had  a  pupil  who  was  a  thorough  convert  to  the  Spen- 
cerian  doctrine  that  there  could  be  no  knowledge 
where  there  was  no  personal  experience.  ^'Have  you 
ever  been  abroad?"  I  asked.  "No."  "Then  do  you 
know  that  there  is  such  a  city  as  London?"  "No." 
"How  would  you  gain  this  knowledge?"  "I  would  go 
there."  "How  would  you  know  when  you  reached 
there?"  So  authority  confronts  us  on  every  hand — 
the  new  theory  broke  down  at  this  point. 

Again,  on  this  hypothesis,  what  is  the  function  of 


EDUCATION  ACCORDING  TO  MATURE     135 

books?  Possibly  Mr.  Spencer  may  have  learned  all 
his  philosophy  from  his  own  observations  and  reflec- 
tions; but,  on  his  own  hypothesis,  why  does  he  write 
so  many  books  for  other  men  to  read?  Scholarship 
and  culture  have  always  meant  and  will  ever  mean  a 
loving  devotion  to  good  books. 

I  venture  to  say  that  the  following  statements  are 
substantially  true: 

The  process  we  call  civilization  is  the  triumph  of  art 
over  Xature,  and  is  a  mark  of  human  progress.  Men 
will  not  renounce  the  essential  concomitants  of  civili- 
zation and  revert  to  a  state  of  Xature  in  pursuit  of 
happiness  or  moral  good.  The  men  of  each  new  gen- 
eration will  start  forward  from  the  vantage  ground 
secured  for  them  by  their  predecessors  on  the  earth. 
They  will  accept  and  use  the  labor-saving  machines 
which  they  inherit  from  the  past,  and,  without  wasting 
time  and  strength  in  the  effort  to  reinvent,  they  will 
capitalize  their  own  experience  and  wisdom  in  some 
other  or  better  labor-saving  devices. 

The  knowledge  gained  by  experience  and  experi- 
ment is  capitalized  and  transmitted  in  books,  and  the 
great  mass  of  men  in  each  new  generation  will  gain 
their  knowledge  by  the  interpretation  of  the  books 
left  by  the  wise  and  the  good.    The  pretense  lately  set 


136  THE   EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

upy  that  students  in  science  are  to  gain  their  knowledge 
inductively,  by  personal  research  in  the  way  of  redis- 
covery, is  a  shallow  fad.  It  would  be  just  as  reputable 
to  counsel  men  to  construct  their  own  almanacs.  Try 
to  imagine  a  class  of  even  university  students  attempt- 
ing to  rediscover  the  atomic  weight  of  chlorine,  or  even 
the  specific  gravity  of  iron!  If  we  commit  ourselves 
to  such  folly  at  all,  why  not  be  radically  and  consist- 
ently foolish,  and  set  about  reinventing  the  apparatus 
of  the  modern  laboratory?  Students  should  certainly 
have  some  training  in  physical  manipulation  and  ex- 
periment, not  on  the  pretense  of  rediscovery,  but 
rather  as  a  means  of  initiation  into  the  processes  of 
modern  scientific  research.  The  culminating  absurdity 
of  this  doctrine  of  rediscovery  is  vivisection,  which, 
as  practiced  in  all  ordinary  cases,  is  nothing  less  than 
a  crime. 

Can  virtue,  in  an  intelligible  sense,  be  capitalized, 
transmitted  and  taught,  so  that  in  the  moral  life  each 
generation  may  start  from  a  higher  vantage  ground; 
or  must  we  be  remanded  to  an  experimental  ethics,  as 
our  reformers  would  remand  us  to  experimental 
science?  This  question  cannot  be  argued  at  this  time, 
but  a  little  reflection  will  show  that  the  world  can 
grow  better  only  on  the  hypothesis  that  the  attainment 


EDUCATION  ACCORDING  TO  NATURE      137 

of  virtue  is  made  somewhat  easier  for  each  succeed- 
ing generation.  In  other  words,  virtue  can  be  taught; 
each  child  is  not  to  construct  a  code  of  ethics  out  of 
his  own  experiences,  but  is  to  accept  the  highest  code 
of  ethics  that  humanity  has  bequeathed  to  him. 

Interpreting  Xature  in  the  sense  of  experience,  or 
contact  with  environment,  which  is  the  prevailing 
sense  in  which  Rousseau  and  Spencer  use  this  term, 
and  speaking  only  for  myself,  I  find  but  little  that  is 
really  helpful  in  the  stock  precept  "Follow  Mature," 
save  this:  It  sen'es  to  keep  alive  the  fact  that  learn- 
ers are  ever  in  danger  of  mistaking  words  for  things, 
and  so  guards  us  against  an  education  that  is  purely 
^Hivresque/^  as  it  has  been  styled.  Thomas  Hobbes 
uttered  the  same  caution  when  he  declared  that  "words 
are  wise  men's  counters,  but  the  money  of  fools." 

I  find  much  more  help  in  a  side  conception  which 
appears  in  the  "Emile"  as  a  sort  of  undertone — that 
there  is  an  imminent  tendency  of  civilization  toward  -a 
distracting  and  unwholesome  complexity,  and  that  the 
need  of  the  age  is  a  return  to  simplicity.  Rousseau's 
illustration  of  his  meaning  is  very  happy.  Speaking 
of  teaching  children  to  read,  he  says:  "We  no  longer 
know  how  to  be  simple  in  anything.  Look  at  the  ma- 
chines we  invent  for  teaching  children  to  read — cabi- 


138       THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS 

nets,  charts,  and  what  not — all  useless  lumber.  "We 
do  everything  save  the  one  thing  essential,  creating  in 
the  child  a  desire  to  read;  do  this,  and  all  methods  are 
good/'  As  I  interpret  this  phase  of  Rousseau's  edu- 
cational philosophy,  it  is  this:  Follow  main  routes; 
abandon  bypaths;  strike  at  creative  motives;  occupy 
strategic  or  dominant  positions.  Educate  as  artists 
paints — begin  with  broad  stroke,  leaving  details  for 
after  consideration.  Imitate  the  unity  of  Nature,  and, 
instead  of  reducing  a  child  to  fractions,  treat  him  as 
an  integer,  making  his  education  wholesome  and  hu- 
mane. 

The  stress  we  put  on  training  is  the  symptom  of  a 
general  unsoundness.  A  trained  horse  or  a  trained  pig 
is  not  a  normal  and  wholesome  horse  or  pig,  but  an 
animal  artificially  shaped  and'  fashioned  into  a  frac- 
tion or  fragment.  A  thin  glaze  of  bookkeeping  con- 
verts an  ignorant  boy  into  a  writing  or  adding  ma- 
chine, and  unfits  him  for  the  functions  of  a  man  pro- 
per. Teachers  are  now  being  trained  rather  than  edu- 
cated, and  these  fractions  tend  to  perpetuate  frag- 
ments. The  one  great  merit  of  the  kindergarten  is 
that  it  keeps  children  whole  and  allows  them  to  grow 
by  an  organic  process  into  symmetrical  units.  The 
danger  of  the  graded  school,  and  even  of  the  college, 


EDUCATION  ACCORDING  TO  NATURE      139 


is  stratification — the  deposition  of  knowledge  in  layers 
by  specialists;  and  the  remedy  for  this  and  kindred 
evils  is  a  return  to  a  wholesome  simplicity  of  Nature — 
to  an  education  according  to  Xature. 

In  a  more  specific  sense,  we  follow  Nature  when  we 
adapt  our  instruction  to  the  organic  mode  of  the  mind's 
activities.  The  mind  is  an  organism  having  its  own 
predetermined  mode  of  activity.  This  constitutes  its 
nature;  and  when  we  respect  this  order  of  procedure 
in  the  presentation  of  knowledge,  we  may  with  scien- 
tific accuracy  be  said  to  follow  Nature.  When  the 
mind  works  naturally — that  is,  in  accordance  with  the 
laws  of  its  organization — it  proceeds  from  aggregates 
to  parts,  from  the  vague  to  the  definite,  and,  in  child- 
hood, from  the  concrete  to  the  abstract;  and  the  teacher 
follows  Nature  when  he  allows  the  mind  to  elaborate 
its  knowledge  in  this  order. 

In  conclusion,  I  venture  to  offer  this  bit  of  advice 
to  those  who  are  trying  to  make  of  their  teaching  a 
rational  art:  In  your  thinking  and  writing  never  al- 
low yourself  to  personify  the  term  Nature,  but  leave 
the  mythologist,  the  poet,  and  the  novelist  in  sole  pos- 
session of  this  deity. 


A  THEORY 
OF   EDUCATION  VALUES 


VII 

A  THEORY  OF  EDUCATION  VALUES 

The  thesis  that  I  aim  to  present  is  as  follows: 
Studies  serve  three  main  purposes  and  therefore  have 
three  main  values.  They  serve  for  discipline,  as  a 
mental  gymnastic;  they  endow  the  mind  with  instru- 
mental knowledge,  or  knowledge  for  guidance;  and 
they  serve  for  delight.  Studies  will  thus  fall  into 
three  classes,  corresponding  to  three  mental  needs — 
disciplinary  studies,  instrumental  studies,  and  culture 
studies. 

In  the  prosecution  of  this  inquiry,  we  shall  be  well 
started  on  our  way  by  recollecting  that  studies  have 
their  distinctive  qualities  or  properties,  just  as  mine- 
rals, vegetables  and  other  natural  substances  have.  In 
its  characteristic  qualities  history  is  as  distinct  from 
algebra  as  bread  is  from  quinine,  and  it  would  be  as 
gross  an  error  to  prescribe  history  at  random  as  to  pre- 
scribe quinine  at  random. 

And  another  thing,  about  as  obvious,  is  also  true. 
It  is  just  as  easy  to  discover  the  characteristic  qualities 
of  studies  as  of  minerals  and  vegetables.  In  both  cases 
we  may  proceed  in  one  or  both  of  two  ways.    We  may 


14:4  THE   EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

examine  tlie  thing  itself  and  thus  discover  its  nature 
or  properties,  or  we  may  examine  its  effects  wlien  ap- 
plied to  use,  and  in  this  way  discover  its  nature  or 
properties.  Whenever  the  results  of  these  two  pro- 
cesses agree,  we  have  absolute  proof  that  our  conclu- 
sions are  valid.  The  mechanic,  wishing  to  construct  a 
plow  beam,  has  before  him  two  pieces  of  wood,  oak 
and  whitewood.  He  need  never  have  made  plow 
beams  out  of  these  two  kinds  of  wood  to  know  that  oak 
is  fit,  and  whitewood  unfit,  for  his  special  purpose. 
Just  so  experience  in  results  is  not  needed  in  order  to 
distinguish  a  training  subject  from  a  culture  subject; 
a  critical  examination  of  the  subjects  themselves  is 
quite  sufficient  to  determine  that  point.  Still,  the  con- 
sensus of  enlightened  opinion  as  to  the  observed  re- 
sults of  studies  is  a  valuable  aid  in  determining  edu- 
cation values,  for  it  cannot  fail  to  be  true  that  the 
long-continued  observation  of  educated  men  as  to  the 
actual  outcome  of  various  studies,  mathematical,  lin- 
guistic and  scientific,  should  be  substantially  accurate, 
just  as  the  collective  opinion  of  medical  men  as  to  the 
effects  of  drugs  must  be  accepted  as  trustworthy  by 
the  students  of  medical  science.  This  inquiry  does  not 
lie  in  the  region  of  hypothesis  and  conjecture,  but  in 
the  clear  field  of  science,  where  certitude  is  possible. 


A   THEORY   OF   EDUCATION   VALUES  145 

The  science  of  education  values  is  both  qualitative 
and  quantitative — qualitative  in  an  exact  scientific 
sense,  and  quantitative  in  the  same  sense  that  the  tem- 
perature of  water  is  quantitative:  high  or  low,  as 
determined  by  a  thermometer. 

It  is  only  this  science  of  values  that  can  furnish  ra- 
tional answers  to  such  questions  as  these:  On  what 
ground  has  the  study  of  algebra  been  made  universal 
in  our  high  schools?  What  rational  defense  is  there 
for  the  study  of  the  classics?  Such  inquiries  arise  with 
reference  to  every  subject  that  is  taught  in  our  schools, 
and  if  education  is  ever  to  become  a  rational  art,  there 
must  be  established  a  science  of  education  values,  just 
as  there  must  be  a  science  of  food  values  before  there 
can  be  a  science  of  dietetics. 

The  question  of  method  is  also  involved  in  this  in- 
quiry. If  two  teachers  of  chemistry,  or  of  literature, 
hold  different  views  as  to  the  major  purpose  of  these 
studies,  they  will  follow  different  routes  and  therefore 
adopt  different  methods.  It  is  to  be  assumed  that  each 
instructor  knows  the  major  effect  of  his  subject,  and 
therefore  its  major  value,  for  on  no  other  assumption 
can  he  be  presumed  to  concentrate  his  skill  in  such  a 
way  as  to  make  his  art  effective.     N'ay,  how  can  a 

teacher  be  said  to  have  an  art  unless  he  keeps  clearly 
10 


146  THE    EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

in  view  a  definite  end  to  be  reached?  The  first  element 
in  school  economy  is  therefore  a  knowledge  of  the 
value  of  studies. 

In  this  discussion  two  facts  will  be  assumed,  as 
follows: 

Every  subject  has  some  major  or  characteristic 
value,  and  also  one  or  more  subordinate  or  minor 
values.  This  major  value  is  its  normal  or  natural 
value,  a  value  inherent  in  the  subject  itself,  resulting 
from  its  very  constitution  and  not  created  by  human 
device.  By  express  effort,  or  through  ignorance,  a 
subject  may  be  perverted  from  its  natural  use,  and 
what  is  essentially  a  minor  value  may  be  made  a  major 
value,  and  thus  its  wholesome  effect  lost.  Thus,  what 
is  naturally  a  culture  subject  may  by  perversion  be 
made  a  disciplinary  subject,  and  so  lose  its  major  value. 
Perversions  in  use  usually  follow  this  line;  they  are 
all  lapses  into  training. 

The  second  fact  to  be  assumed  is  that  the  future 
vocation  of  students  is  unknown,  that  their  education 
is  general  or  liberal,  and  not  special  or  technical.  The 
whole  scheme  of  values  is  disturbed  the  moment  we 
come  to  deal  with  students  who  are  studying  for  spe- 
cial vocations.  We  must  assume  that  we  are  serving 
the  intellectual  and  moral  needs  that  are  common  to 


A  THEORY  OF  EDUCATION  VALUES      147 

all  men,  quite  regardless  of  their  special  vocations. 
All  men,  regardless  of  their  special  occupations,  must 
be  taught  to  read  and  write,  for  these  instrumental 
arts  are  necessary  to  the  conduct  of  life;  but,  for  prac- 
tical ends,  chemistry  need  not  be  taught  to  all  men, 
since  the  world  may  be  served  by  a  few  chemists,  as  it 
is  served  by  a  few  doctors  and  lawyers. 

This  is  one  of  the  oldest  of  speculative  questions. 
Plato  discusses  the  education  value  of  arithmetic, 
geometry  and  dialectic,  and  Aristotle,  of  music  and 
painting;  and  in  modem  times  the  subject  has  been 
taken  up  anew  by  Lord  Bacon,  Dr.  Whewell,  Sir  Wil- 
liam Hamilton,  Alexander  Bain  and  Herbert  Spencer. 
Only  two  of  these  writers  attempt  any  classification 
of  studies.  Lord  Bacon  and  Dr.  Whewell,  and  of  these 
classifications  Lord  Bacon's  alone  is  sufficiently  analyti- 
cal to  be  scientific  and  valuable.  His  well-known  state- 
ment is  as  follows:  "Studies  serve  for  delight,  for 
ornament  and  for  ability.  Their  chief  use  for  delight 
is  in  privateness  and  retiring;  for  ornament,  is  in  dis- 
course; and  for  ability,  is  in  the  judgment  and  dispo- 
sition of  business."  In  substance,  and  with  a  little 
modification,  this  is  the  classification  that  I  shall  pro- 
pose. 

I  suppose  no  one  nowadays  would  recommend  a 


148  THE    EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

Study  merely  because  it  is  "ornamental;"  that  is,  be- 
cause it  will  enable  one  to  shine  in  conversation.  But 
if  we  construe  the  term  "ornamental"  in  a  wider  sense, 
so  as  to  include  the  art  of  pleasing,  the  studies  that 
serve  this  high  purpose  have  a  legitimate  place  in  a 
scheme  of  values,  and  will  be  considered  in  another 
place.  It  is  equally  obvious,  from  the  phraseology 
and  from  the  context,  that  Bacon  includes  two  things 
under  the  term  "ability" — a  habit  or  disposition  of 
mind  expressed  by  the  term  "judgment,"  and  the 
turning  of  a  study  to  practical  account  in  the  "dis- 
position of  business."  When  he  says  that  "studies 
serve  for  delight,"  he  evidently  refers  to  the  contem- 
plative pleasures  that  come  from  a  well-furnished 
mind.  With  one  retrenchment,  and  with  this  legiti- 
mate amplification,  and  expressed  in  modem  terms. 
Lord  Bacon's  classification  stands  as  follows:  Studies 
eerye  three  main  purposes,  and  therefore  have  three 
characteristic  values.  They  serve  for  mental  disci- 
pline, for  guidance  in  affairs,  and  for  contemplative 
delight,  and  therefore  have  three  normal  or  natural 
values:  (1)  Disciplinary,  (2)  Practical,  and  (3)  Cul- 
tural. 

I.  If  the  Iron  he  Blunt,  and  he  do  Not  Whet  the 
Edge,  then  Must  he  Put  to  More  Strength. — That 


A   THEORY    OF    EDUCATION    VALUES  149 

Bacon  fully  realized  tlie  disciplinary  value  of  studies 
is  abundantly  shown  by  tbe  following  statement:  "His- 
tories make  men  wise,  poets  witty;  the  mathematics 
subtle;  natural  philosophy  deep;  moral;  grave;  logic 
and  rhetoric  able  to  contend.  Aheunt  studia  in  mores 
(studies  terminate  in  manners).  Xay,  there  is  no 
stond  or  impediment  in  the  wit  but  may  be  wrought 
out  by  fit  studies,  like  as  diseases  of  the  body  may  have 
appropriate  exercises.  Bowling  is  good  for  the 
and  reins,  shooting  for  the  lungs  and  breast,  genu© 
walking  for  the  stomach,  riding  for  the  head,  and  the 
like.  So,  if  a  man's  wit  be  wandering,  let  him  study 
the  mathematics,  for,  in  demonstrations,  if  his  wit  be 
called  away  never  so  little^  he  must  begin  again.  If 
his  wit  be  not  apt  to  distinguish  or  find  differences,  let 
him  study  the  schoolmen,  for  they  are  cymini  sedores. 
If  he  be  not  apt  to  beat  over  matters,  and  to  caU  up  one 
thing  to  prove  and  illustrate  another,  let  him  study 
the  lawyers'  cases.  So,  every  defect  of  the  mind  may 
have  a  special  receipt." 

In  this  notable  quotation  we  have  the  clearly  cut 
conception  of  study  as  a  mental  gymnastic.  The  gen- 
eral philosophy  that  underlies  this  fact  is  easy  to  dis- 
cover. Milo,  the  athlete,  as  Quintilian  affirms,  by 
lifting  the  calf  day  after  day,  was,  in  the  end,  able  to 


150  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

lift  the  ox.  Mind  and  muscle  agree  in  this  fact  that, 
by  being  taxed,  they  acquire  new  power  and  skill,  and 
thia  is  what  we  mean  by  discipline.  When  the  mind 
is  engaged  in  study,  its  powers  are  necessarily  taxed, 
and  the  reflex  effect  is  discipline,  so  that  all  studies 
must  have  some  kind  and  degree  of  disciplinary  value, 
the  kind  and  degree  depending  on  the  nature  of  the 
study  and  the  intensity  of  the  effort.  Mathematics  and 
history  call  into  exercise  different  modes  of  mental 
activity,  and  therefore  produce  different  kinds  of  dis- 
cipline. Again,  in  some  cases,  the  mind  works  at  high 
tension,  at  a  white  heat,  under  the  whip  and  spur, 
while  in  other  cases  it  is  in  a  quiescent,  almost  passive 
state,  very  like  the  state  of  a  sensitive  plate  in  a 
camera,  receiving  impressions  rather  than  creating 
them.  In  respect  of  mental  tax  or  tension,  the  dif- 
ference between  reading  Kant's  Critique  and  Dickens' 
Oliver  Twist  is  immeasurable,  very  like  the  difference 
in  respect  of  muscular  effort  between  climbing  the 
Alps  and  gliding  through  the  country  in  a  palace  car. 
The  reflex  effect  of  this  tax  is  what  we  call  discipline, 
and  is  subject  to  the  following  law :  If  the  reflex  effect 
is  to  he  cumulative,  the  tax  must  he  cumulative  also, 
the  utmost  that  a  uniform^  tax  can  do  heing  to  preserve 
ihe  status  quo.     To  resolve  the  quantity  x* — y'^  into 


A    THEORY   OF    EDUCATION    VALUES  151 

its  factors  for  the  first  time  requires  considerable  effort, 
and  this  effort  yields  considerable  discipline;  but  the 
repetition  of  this  analysis  for  the  thousandth  time  en- 
dows the  mind  with  no  new  power.  C^est  le  premier 
pas  qui  coute.  This  principle  shows  us  the  wisdom 
of  allowing  students  to  struggle  with  difficulties,  as- 
sisted, at  most,  by  suggestion,  and  the  folly  of  making 
his  tasks  easy — of  converting  work  into  play. 

The  conception  of  power  and  skill,  as  aims  of  dis- 
cipline, admits  of  some  analysis,  as  follows : 

Insight  or  penetration:  the  power  to  make  a  mental 
analysis  of  a  phenomenon  and  to  discover  its  secret 
cause;  as,  e.  g.j  the  motive  which  underlies  human 
conduct. 

Comprehension:  the  power  to  classify  phenomena 
or  facts  according  to  their  essential  marks,  and  to  deal 
with  wide  classes  rather  than  with  single  instances. 

Versatility:  the  power  to  apply  general  principles 
to  the  solution  of  new  cases,  or  to  meet  vicissitudes 
with  composure  and  success;  fertility  in  resources. 

Good  judgment:  the  ability  to  see  things  in  their 
true  relations,  and  from  these  relations  to  draw  correct 
conclusions. 

Discrimination:  the  power  to  note  minute  but 
essential   differences,   to  look  below  surface  resem- 


152  THE   EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

blances,  and  to  distinguisli  from  one  another  objects 
seemingly  alike. 

Mental,  like  physical  gymnastics,  aims  at  whole- 
ness, soundness,  perfection,  at  what  is  hale,  hearty  and 
robust.  To  this  end  it  must  curb  an  exuberant  faculty 
and  stimulate  to  activity  a  faculty  that  is  either  weak 
or  dormant.  It  is  true  alike  of  mind  and  of  body  that 
"unto  every  one  that  hath  shall  be  given;  but  from 
him  that  hath  not  shall  be  taken  away  even  that  which 
he  hath."  When,  by  nature  or  use,  a  mode  of  activity 
has  become  easy  and  therefore  pleasurable,  it  makes 
its  way  with  an  ever  swelling  tide,  and  drains  other 
modes  of  activity  of  their  just  opportunities.  That  a 
student  has  a  marked  predilection  for  a  certain  study 
is  pioof  that  his  mind  is  a  facile  instrument  in  one 
main  line  of  activity,  and  may  be  a  valid  reason  why 
he  should  be  excused  from  this  intellectual  pursuit; 
while  marked  unsuccess  in  another  study  indicates  a 
dormant  or  undeveloped  faculty,  and  may  be  a  valid 
reason  why  the  study  should  be  maintained,  even  un- 
der painful  pressure.  That  a  student  dislikes  a  study 
is  no  good  reason  in  itself  why  he  should  be  excused 
from  it.  There  is  some  truth  in  the  ascetic  doctrine 
that  one's  appetencies  should  be  suppressed  and  his 
repugnancies  disregarded.    All  that  is  said  in  this  para- 


A  THEORY  OF   EDUCATION   VALUES  153 

graph  proceeds  on  the  hypothesis  that  symmetry  and 
wholeness  are  postulates  in  the  art  of  education. 

Much  of  the  skill  that  is  ascribed  to  the  hand  is 
really  located  in  the  head.  Thus,  one  may  never  have 
employed  the  left  hand  in  writing,  but  in  case  the 
right  hand  is  disabled,  its  fellow,  without  any  training 
whatever,  will  come  to  the  rescue  and  write,  not  only 
legibly,  but  in  the  usual  style  of  letters.  Evidently, 
the  origin  of  this  potential  skill  is  in  the  mind. 

While  the  immediate  condition  of  discipline  is  exer- 
cise, its  fundamental  condition  is  nurture.  Perhaps  it 
is  nearer  the  truth  to  say  that  discipline  is  the  joint 
effect  of  nurture  and  exercise.  I^urture  produces  or 
maintains  growth,  that  is,  addition  to  structure,  but 
volume  is  not  discipline,  that  is,  power  and  skill;  while 
exercise,  without  nurture,  is  wasting  and  weakening. 

From  the  standpoint  of  mere  discipline,  the  mind  is 
an  intellectual  machine  with  all  its  parts  in  perfect 
working  order  and  ready  on  the  instant  to  obey  the 
voice  of  motive  and  to  execute  the  manifold  behests 
of  the  will.  It  is  a  mighty  engine,  ready  to  move  at 
the  voice  of  command  on  any  one  of  a  thousand  routes, 
or  to  turn  out  any  one  of  a  thousand  products;  but 
without  this  voice  of  command,  without  the  mental 
and  the  moral  fiber  that  gives  coherence  and  strength 


164:  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

to  its  working  parts,  without  the  propelling  force  of 
will  and  emotion,  and  without  instrumental  knowl- 
edge, it  is  a  beautiful  but  useless  piece  of  spiritual 
mechanism.  Discipline  is  an  essential  element  in  edu- 
cation, but  it  is  only  one  of  three  coordinate  elements. 

What  has  now  been  said  under  the  head  of  discip- 
line may  be  summarized  as  follows: 

Discipline  is  the  reflex  effect  left  on  the  mind  by 
the  studies  and  pursuits  that  call  into  play  its  energies, 
or  tax  its  powers. 

As  every  study  requires  either  a  maximum,  a  me- 
dium, or  a  minimum  of  mental  effort,  it  will  have  one 
of  these  three  degrees  of  disciplinary  value. 

For  purposes  of  discipline,  the  mind  must  work  at 
high  tension,  or  under  continuous  strain,  and  the  tax 
on  its  powers  must  be  cumulative. 

Discipline  as  a  process  creates  power  ^nd  converts 
this  power  into  skill. 

Some  of  the  special  intellectual  qualities  included 
under  the  term  are  insight  or  penetratioriy  comprehen- 
sion, versatility,  good  judgment^  discrimination. 

Discipline  should  aim  at  wholeness,  soundness,  sym- 
metry ;  and  to  this  end  it  must  follow  a  system  of  curb- 
ing and  stimulation. 

Distaste  for  a  study,  when  not  the  result  of  poor 


A   THEORY    OF    EDUCATION    VALUES  155 

instruction,  results  from  a  dormant  or  imperfectly  de- 
veloped state  of  the  activities  which  this  study  requires, 
and  indicates  wise  stimulation  by  the  very  study 
which  the  mind  seems  to  reject. 

In  its  origin  manual  skill  is  a  mental  endowment; 
it  is  the  creative  and  directive  mind  that  communicates 
delicacy  and  deftness  of  touch  to  the  fingers. 

Discipline  creates  an  instrument  that  is  useless  with- 
out will,  motive,  moral  power  and  instrumental  knowl- 
edge. 

II.  Wisdom  is  Profitable  to  Direct. — From  studies 
disciplinary  we  now  pass  to  studies  instrumental — ^that 
is,  to  studies  that  furnish  the  mind  with  its  working 
tools.  We  must  distinguish  the  hand,  with  its  strong 
muscles  trained  to  deftness,  from  the  tools  which  it 
employs  in  the  execution  of  its  work;  the  bent  bow 
with  its  cord  stretched  to  high  tension,  from  the  tipped 
arrow  waiting  to  be  sent  to  the  target.  However  well 
trained  or  disciplined  the  mind  may  be,  it  is  a  useless 
instrument  unless  furnished  with  its  appropriate  tools, 
these  tools  being  the  studies  or  knowledges  which  the 
mind  may  employ  in  the  performance  of  its  manifold 
functions.  It  should  be  almost  as  easy  to  distinguish 
the  mind  from  these  instrumental  possessions  as  to  dis- 
tinguish the  artisan  from  his  assortment  of  tools.    But 


156  THE   EDUCATION   OF   TEACHERS 

these  tools,  these  saws,  chisels,  and  planes,  are  but 
secondary;  the  box  of  primary  tools  is  the  artisan's 
head  with  its  ideas  or  working  plans,  its  knowledge  of 
matter  and  its  laws,  and  its  knowledge  of  tools  and 
their  uses;  for  without  this  knowledge  how  could  he 
know  what  to  saw,  when  to  saw,  and  how  to  saw?  At 
this  stage  of  our  inquiry  the  important  thing  is  to  dis- 
tinguish the  items  of  instrumental  knowledge  as  pos- 
sessions of  the  mind  quite  distinct  from  the  mind  itself. 
This  is  what  we  mean  by  practical  knowledge,  knowl- 
edge that  the  mind  can  employ  in  the  solution  of  prob- 
lems, in  the  doing  of  work,  in  the  calculation  of  results, 
in  the  execution  of  plans,  or,  more  concretely,  in  build- 
ing houses,  in  curing  diseases,  in  pleading  suits,  in 
writing  sermons,  in  educating  children,  in  piloting  ves- 
sels, in  making  treaties,  in  conducting  a  campaign,  in 
cooking  a  dinner,  in  buying  and  selling,  and  so  on 
without  end.  If  one  limitation  to  beneficent  doing  is 
lack  of  skill,  another  and  greater  limitation  is  lack  of 
knowledge.  It  is  not  said  that  people  perish  for  lack 
of  skill,  but  for  lack  of  knowledge.  When  language 
was  young  and  speech  picturesque,  knowledge  was 
light,  light-giving,  enlightening;  it  was  a  lamp  to  the 
feet  and  a  light  to  the  path.  Just  as  in  the  dark  we 
throw  a  light  ahead  of  us  to  guide  us  on  our  way,  so 


A  THEORY  OF  EDUCATION  VALUES     157 

in  the  conduct  of  life  we  throw  the  light  of  knowledge 
upon  the  problems  we  have  to  solve,  and  so  trace  our 
course  with  certainty  and  success.  Light  is  an  instru- 
ment, and  the  most  beneficent  of  all  instruments. 

To  show  how  old  these  truths  are  that  we  are  dis- 
cussing, and  how  clear  was  the  distinction  between  the 
mind  as  an  instrument,  and  the  knowledge  held  for  its 
guidance,  observe  this  quotation  from  Ecclesiastes  x., 
10:  "If  the  iron  be  blunt  and  he  do  not  whet  the  edge, 
then  must  he  put  to  more  strength;  but  wisdom  is  pro- 
fitable to  direct.''  Here  we  see  the  blunt,  untrained 
mind,  doing  its  work  only  by  dint  of  painful  effort, 
contrasted  with  the  sharp,  incisive  mind,  doing  its 
work  easily  and  deftly;  and  in  the  final  clause  we  have 
the  conception  of  knowledge  as  light — "profitable  to 
direct."  It  is  with  this  last  conception  that  we  are  now 
dealing.  • 

Easy  illustrations  of  instrumental  knowledge  are 
found  in  every  profession,  art  and  trade  where  special 
knowledge  is  employed  in  the  application  of  means  to 
ends,  or  in  the  production  of  effects  by  the  use  of 
known  causes;  as,  when  an  alkali  is  applied  to  flesh  that 
is  burning  with  an  acid,  or  when  sulphur  is  thrown  into 
the  grate  to  quench  a  fire  in  the  chimney,  or  when  a 
decision  is  quoted  to  throw  a  case  out  of  court,  or  when 


158  THE    EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

the  forge  fire  is  sprinkled  with  water  to  increase  the 
heat,  or  when  an  impending  examination  is  used  to 
spur  a  class  to  diligence,  or  when  a  fact  in  history  is 
used  to  impress  a  lesson  in  political  economy.  Politics 
as  an  art  consists  in  the  deft  manipulation  of  motive. 
As  man  is  a  gregarious  animal,  his  most  pressing  need 
as  a  social  creature  is  communication  with  his  fellows; 
and  to  this  end  he  turns  to  hourly  and  momentary  ac- 
count his  knowledge  of  symbols,  and  so  resorts  to 
speech,  to  writing,  to  the  telegraph,  to  the  telephone; 
at  sea,  to  the  language  of  flags  and  whistles,  and  on 
railroads  to  colored  lights  and  signals.  The  hourly 
use  of  computation  in  the  transaction  of  business  is  a 
familiar  illustration  of  the  instrumental  value  of 
knowledge.  Man  might  be  defined  as  the  animal  de- 
voted to  the  conversion  of  knowledge  into  the  uses  and 
utilities  of  hourly  life. 

For  the  purposes  contemplated  in  this  discussion  it  is 
necessary  to  mark  the  distinction  between  knowledge 
that  is  directly  instrumental  and  knowledge  that  is  in- 
strumental indirectly  or  at  second  hand.  The  instru- 
mental value  of  telegraphy  is  incalculable,  but  one 
may  enjoy  all  the  practical  benefits  of  this  art  without 
having  any  personal  knowledge  of  it  whatever;  that  is, 
telegraphy  confers  its  benefits  on  the  great  mass  of 


A   THEORY  OF   EDUCATION   VALUES  159 

mankind  through,  a  few  specialists;  its  instrumental 
value  is  of  the  secondary  or  indirect  order.  The  same 
is  true  of  every  variety  of  professional  and  technical 
knowledge.  One  does  not  need  to  be  a  hatter  to  enjoy 
thfe  use  of  hats,  or  a  physician  to  participate  in  the 
benefits  of  the  healing  art,  or  a  chemist  to  profit  by  the 
utilities  of  this  science.  This  truth  may  become  clearer 
by  contrast.  Thus  the  instrumental  value  of  reading, 
writing  and  simple  computation  is  of  the  direct  order; 
that  is,  we  must  all  know  and  practice  these  arts  in 
order  to  participate  in  their  benefits;  they  do  not  com- 
monly serve  us  by  proxy.  It  follows  from  the  distinc- 
tion just  made  that  there  are  certain  kinds  of  knowl- 
edge that  all  men  should  have  for  self -guidance,  while 
there  are  many  other  kinds  of  knowledge  which  serve 
them  by  proxy;  they  do  not  need  to  know  them  in 
order  to  enjoy  all  their  practical  benefits.  Our  courses 
of  study  contain  many  subjects  that  the  average  stu- 
dent will  never  turn  to  practical  account;  they  are  tc 
be  defended  on  other  and  higher  grounds. 

This  narrowing  down  of  knowledge  whose  instru- 
mental value  is  of  the  direct  or  primary  order  has  been 
brought  about  by  the  division  and  specialization  of 
labor  and  it  will  happen  as  this  process  is  extended  that 
the  volume  of  directly  "practical"  knowledge   will 


160  THE   EDUCATION   OF   TEACHERS 

grow  smaller  and  smaller;  that  is,  men  will  more  and 
more  employ  the  knowledge  of  specialists,  will  more 
and  more  specialize  their  own  activities,  and  will  re- 
duce to  a  narrower  and  narrower  compass  the  knowl- 
edge which  is  required  for  self -direction  and  self-help ; 
individual  effort  will  become  less  extensive  but  more 
intensive,  it  will  cover  a  smaller  field  but  will  go  down 
deeper,  men  will  do  fewer  things  but  will  do  them  bet- 
ter, and  the  vast  field  of  knowledge  will  be  cultivated 
less  and  less  for  its  practical  utilities,  but  more  and 
more  for  the  edification  and  perfection  of  the  human 
personality. 

"Studies  that  serve  for  ornament,"  to  repeat  Ba- 
con's phrase,  have  their  place  under  the  head  of  in- 
strumental studies.  On  occasion  it  may  be  our  direct 
purpose  to  please,  to  entertain,  as  in  telling  a  story> 
reciting  a  poem,  singing  a  song,  playing  a  piece  of 
music,  or  acting  a  drama,  and  the  studies  that  serve 
this  high  purpose  have  an  instrumental  value  in  ex- 
actly the  same  sense  in  which  trigonometry  has  an 
instrumental  value  to  the  surveyor.  There  is  an  art 
of  pleasing,  just  as  there  is  an  art  of  making  shoes,  and 
those  who  practice  this  art  must  master  certain  studies 
and  then  turn  them  to  practical  account  as  the  tools 
of  their  trade. 


A   THEORY   OF   EDUCATION   VALUES  161 

m.  Studies  Serve  for  Delight. — We  have  now 
come  to  the  consideration  of  certain  studies  whose 
value  lies,  not  in  their  use  as  instrumental  knowledge, 
nor  in  the  discipline  which  they  impart,  but  in  mere 
possession,  and  in  the  contribution  which  they  make 
to  the  moral  life  of  the  soul.  We  must  distinguish 
between  the  instruments  of  the  kitchen  and  the  adorn- 
ments of  the  parlor,  and  ask  ourselves  such  questions 
as  these:  In  what  does  the  education  value  of  a  vase, 
or  of  a  painting,  consist?  What  educative  purpose 
does  ornament  serve?  Is  there  a  value  in  mere  pos- 
session quite  independent  of  any  utility  into  which  it 
may  be  converted?  What  is  the  major  educative  value 
of  travel?  What  is  the  highest  purpose  served  by  a 
piece  of  literary  art?  For  purposes  of  education,  is  it 
desirable  to  cultivate  happiness,  serenity  of  spirit,  and 
composure  of  mind?  These  questions  will  exhibit  the 
scope  and  direction  of  this  branch  of  our  inquiry. 

When  Bacon  says  that  it  is  "in  privateness  and  re- 
tiring" that  studies  serve  most  for  delight,  he  evi- 
dently turns  aside  from  the  world  of  utilities,  from  all 
consideration  of  what  we  shall  eat  or  of  what  we  shall 
drink  or  of  what  we  shall  put  on,  and  directs  our 
thoughts  to  that  higher  region  of  the  contemplative 

life  where  the  soul  is  maturing  its  powers,  acquiring 
11 


162  THE   EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

new  graces,  fortifying  its  purposes,  purifying  its  mo- 
tives, and  in  this  state  of  isolation  and  retirement  pre- 
paring itself  for  new  conquests  in  the  lower  regions 
of  active  life  where  the  law  of  service  compels  men  to 
he  instruments.  In  discussing  the  value  of  arithmetic, 
Plato  expressly  distinguishes  the  lower  world  of  com- 
mercial life  from  that  higher  world  of  the  contempla- 
tive life  where  the  soul  dwells  in  serenity  and  peace 
while  maturing'  its  heaven-aspiring  powers. 

This  higher  region  of  the  spiritual  life  cannot  b« 
defined  in  such  a  way  as  to  cut  it  off  from  the  lower 
regions  of  the  purely  intellectual  life,  but  some  of  its 
marks  or  characteristics  may  be  noted,  as  follows: 

It  is  the  region  of  feeling^  affection,  emotion,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  region  of  mere  thinking.  The 
intellectual  discernment  of  an  object,  and  the  loving 
or  hating  of  that  object,  are  irreducible  phenomena; 
neither  can  be  expressed  in  terms  of  the  other.  All 
that  we  can  say  is  that  the  intellectual  discernment 
must  come  first,  and  that  the  clothing  of  the  object 
with  the  halo  of  feeling  is  a  subsequent  phenomenon; 
that  the  two  phenomena  originate  in  different  regions 
of  the  spiritual  life,  and  that  what  is  most  truly  hu- 
man in  man  is  his  purified  and  exalted  emotion.  The 
problem  of  moral  education  would  be  solved  if  there 


A  THEORY  OF  EDUCATION  VALUES     163 

were  an  art  of  investing  the  objects  of  thought  and 
perception  with  the  best  emotional  attachments.  This 
would  not  only  make  the  will  operative,  but  it  would 
always  ^vork  in  right  lines.  It  is  not  mere  feeling  that 
is  wanted  (animals  and  savages  have  enough  of  that), 
but  feeling  that  has  been  chastened,  purified,  and  dis- 
ciplined by  the  regal  understanding.  A  pure  heart, 
the  home  of  saintly  emotions  and  holy  aspirations,  is  a 
higher  attainment  than  a  wise  head  garnished  with  the 
most  brilliant  intellectual  endowments. 

The  spiritual  life  is  also  the  region  of  ideals.  An 
ideal  may  be  defined  as  a  perfected  idea  with  an  at- 
tached feeling  of  admiration  which  often  constitutes 
a  motive  or  stimulus  for  realizing  higher  effects. 
Plato  held  that  the  work  of  creation  was  accomplished 
by  means  of  ideas,  patterns,  or  types,  held  in  the 
divine  mind  and  embodied  in  the  objects  of  his  crea- 
tion. Thus,  every  tree  is  a  copy,  more  or  less  imper- 
fect, of  a  divine  pattern  laid  up  in  heaven.  The  divine 
idea  is  thus  the  divine  ideal;  the  pattern  is  perfect,  is 
seen  to  be  good,  and  is  employed  by  the  creative  en- 
ergy in  constructing  the  "^dsible  world.  In  human 
experience,  however,  the  case  is  different.  The  men- 
tal picture  left  in  the  mind  when  we  have  observed  a 
tree  is  an  idea  of  a  tree,  but  it  is  imperfect  because  the 


164:  THE   EDUCATION   OF   TEACHERS 

tree  itself  is  imperfect;  but  out  of  all  our  ideas  or 
mental  pictures  of  trees  we  construct  a  new  pattern  or 
type,  embodying  the  excellencies  of  all,  and  invested 
with  added  perfections  by  the  creative  power  of  the 
human  soul,  and  this  last  pattern  or  type  is  an  ideal. 
The  works  of  creation  are  therefore  the  interpreters 
of  the  divine  mind;  so  our  ideals  help  us  to  come  a 
little  nearer  into  the  divine  presence,  and  to  under- 
stand more  fully  the  divine  purpose  and  thought. 
Work  of  high  quality,  whether  by  the  artist  or  the 
artisan,  is  dependent  on  the  formation  and  possession 
of  wholesome  ideals.  In  one  of  its  highest  aspects  the 
art  of  education  is  the  art  of  creating  ideals. 

It  is  the  region  of  reverence  and  of  worship.  Man's 
emotional  and  affectionate  nature  reaches  its  culmina- 
tion in  reverence  and  worship — that  homage  which 
the  heart  pays  to  what  is  supreme  in  goodness  and 
power.  Affection  purifies  and  ennobles  by  bringing 
us  into  likeness  with  the  object  of  our  affection.  We 
idealize  what  we  love,  and  thus  are  insensibly  trans- 
formed by  our  aspiration  after  the  perfection  that  we 
ascribe  to  the  object  of  our  affections.  The  supreme 
transforming  power  is  reverence,  adoration,  worship; 
and  the  measure  of  human  greatness  is  the  degree  to 
which  the  nature  has  been  transformed  and  renewed 


A  THEORY  OF  EDUCATION  VALUES     166 

bj  a  pure  spiritual  worship.  If  the  region  of  the  in- 
tellect is  holy,  this  region  of  the  higher  emotions  is  the 
holy  of  holies;  and  the  education  that  has  failed  to 
affect  the  soul  in  these  higher  movements  has  fallen 
short  of  its  truest  mission. 

It  is  the  region  of  emotional  and  judicial  calm. 
One  of  the  last  and  highest  attainments  made  by  the 
human  soul  in  its  upward  progress  is  a  settled  state  of 
emotional  repose,  of  judicial  calm,  of  genial  serenity, 
of  inward  peace.  In  order  to  put  forth  all  its  powers 
and  to  attain  to  its  predetermined  and  possible  perfec- 
tion, the  soul  must  finally  establish  this  inner  court 
or  sanctuary  where  emotional  storms  never  penetrate 
and  where  the  fruits  of  righteousness  may  mature  in 
peace,  and  into  which  the  spirit,  weary  and  worn,  may 
retire  for  comfort  and  strength.  That  education  is 
vain,  and  that  religion  is  vain,  which  does  not  culmi- 
nate in  this  repose  of  the  passions  and  the  emotions, 
and  in  a  dominant  state  of  serenity  and  peace.  The 
route  to  this  supreme  attainment  is  not  through  insen- 
sibility and  fatalism,  but  through  wide  intelligence 
and  sharp  conflict,  through  a  lifting  of  the  intellectual 
horizon  and  a  chastening  and  purification  of  the  emo- 
tions. 

It  is  the  region  of  faith  and  hope.     It  is  through 


166  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

faitili  and  Lope  that  we  escape  the  hard  limitations  of 
matter  and  sense,  gain  some  grasp  on  the  unseen  and 
tthe  eternal,  and  thus  manifest  our  essential  divinity 
and  immortality.  It  is  through  faith  that  man  main- 
tains fellowship  with  his  kind,  and  it  is  through  faith 
that  he  maintains  fellowship  with  his  creator.  Faith 
is  the  sure  and  steadfast  anchor  to  the  soul.  The  life 
that  has  lost  its  buoyancy  and  spring  has  degenerated 
into  the  lower  regions  of  the  animal  and  the  vegeta- 
tive. It  is  hope  that  gives  to  life  its  buoyancy  and 
spring,  and  therefore  the  man  who  has  lost  hope  has 
ceased  to  be  a  man.  For  the  maintenance  of  hope, 
life  must  have  an  outlook,  a  vista  through  which  dis- 
tant glories  may  be  discerned.  The  opening  of  such 
vistas  is  a  prime  function  of  education  and  study. 

It  is  the  region  of  the  contemplative  life.  "When 
Plato  declares  that  the  educated  man  should  be  ^^the 
spectator  of  all  time  and  all  existence,"  he  evidently 
refers  to  the  inner  contemplative  life,  as  distinguished 
from  the  outer,  active  life,  where  the  energies  ex- 
pended are  physical  rather  than  spiritual.  Men  with 
the  weight  of  the  world's  betterment  and  redemption 
upon  them  have  found  it  necessary  to  withdraw  from 
society  for  a  period,  in  order  to  give  themselves  up 
to  contemplation,  and  to  mature  their  purposes  and  to 


A   THEORY    OF    EDUCATION    VALUES  167 

renew  their  spiritual  strength  in  solitude.  What  is 
so  essential  to  great  men  is,  in  a  measure,  essential  to 
all  men.  All  men  need  intellectual  and  spiritual  per- 
spective, and  to  this  end  they  must  resort  to  the  con- 
templative life,  where  the  soul,  in  peace  and  repose, 
can  enter  into  communion  with  itself.  All  men  must 
do  something,  but  the  condition  and  support  of  the 
outer,  instrumental  life  is  the  contemplative,  reflec- 
tive life,  which  fits  men  to  be  something. 

It  is  the  region  of  character.  Two  steel  cables  may 
be  identical  in  weight  and  appearance,  but  under 
equal  stress  one  may  break  while  the  other  holds. 
"We  ascribe  the  difference  to  internal  constitution  or 
fiber,  to  some  in\dsible  but  real  quality  inherent  in 
the  matter  or  metal  of  the  cable.  And  so  when  men 
break  under  the  stress  of  circumstances  we  ascribe  the 
fault  to  some  weakness  or  flaw  in  that  moral  fiber  of 
the  soul  which  we  call  character.  "We  are  again  in  a 
region  where  exact  definition  is  impossible,  but  we 
may  say  that  the  fundamental  element  in  character  is 
will,  or  the  focusing  of  energy  on  effort.  This  deter- 
mining power  of  the  soul  is  largely  constitutional  and 
is  innate,  but  as  the  antecedent  to  will  is  motive,  or 
emotion,  we  gain  some  control  over  the  will  by  the 
creation  or  manipulation  of  motive,  so  that  a  strategic 


168  THE   EDUCATION   OF   TEACHERS 

point  in  moral  education  is  the  culture  of  the  feel- 
ings. But  the  current  of  feeling  may  set  in  strongly 
towards  a  given  course  of  action  which  the  will  may 
suddenly  reverse  or  inhibit,  stemming  or  overcoming 
the  flood  tide  of  emotion.  This  veto  power  comes 
down  from  the  intellect  as  the  prerogative  of  the 
dominant  reason.  Another  strategic  point  is  there- 
fore a  broad  and  prophetic  intelligence  that  can  dis- 
cern the  remote  consequences  of  proposed  lines  of 
conduct.  The  operations  of  the  intellect  affect  char- 
acter in  still  another  way.  High  states  of  feeling 
prevent  clear  and  effective  thinking,  and,  conversely, 
vigorous  thinking  allays  or  checks  the  vehemence  of 
feeling.  Now  character,  in  order  to  be  judicial,  must 
be  protected  from  emotional  storms,  and  so  it  happens 
that  a  mind  addicted  to  thinking  produces  that  "quies- 
cence of  the  emotions"  which  is  favorable  to  the 
prevalence  of  right  conduct.  It  is  also  to  be  noted 
that  when  the  higher  emotions  are  dominant,  the 
lower  or  dangerous  emotions  are  either  suppressed  or 
checked.  A  man  who  finds  pleasure  in  literary,  scien- 
tific or  artistic  pursuits  is  in  little  danger  of  the 
pleasures  that  pervert  and  degrade. 

All  educational  effort  should  terminate  in  charac- 
ter, for  character  is  the  highest  aim  of  the  teacher's 


A  THEORY  OF  EDUCATION  VALUES      169 

art.  Studies  that  are  directly  tributary  to  this  end 
transcend  in  importance  studies  whose  major  value 
is  of  the  disciplinary  or  of  the  instrumental  type. 
Comenius  rightly  defined  the  school  as  an  officina 
humanitatiSy  a  manufactory  of  men,  and  were  this 
conception  generally  prevalent,  studies  of  the  hu- 
mane or  culture  type  would  regain  the  standing  which 
they  held  in  a  less  "practical'*  age. 

With  this  outline  well  in  view,  we  may  now  con- 
sider some  of  the  questions  raised  in  another  place  in 
this  essay. 

It  must  be  apparent,  even  on  a  slight  examination, 
that  only  a  few  of  the  studies  embraced  in  the  ordi- 
nary curriculum  can  be  converted  into  instrumental 
uses  by  the  general  student.  For  example,  what  is  a 
valid  defense  for  the  study  of  astronomy  in  school  or 
college?  It  is  evident  that  this  science  as  a  whole 
cannot  be  converted  into  a  correlative  art.  For  the 
most  part,  astronomical  laws  are  entirely  beyond 
human  control;  the  knowledge  of  them  cannot  be 
made  instrumental  by  man  in  the  satisfaction  of  his 
needs  or  in  the  execution  of  his  purposes.  itTeither 
can  it  be  said  that  the  study  of  astronomy,  as  it  is 
pursued  by  the  general  student,  has  such  a  marked 
disciplinary  value  as  to  give  it  a  permanent  place  in 


170  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

our  courses  of  study.  The  very  best,  and  indeed  the 
only,  answer  that  can  be  returned  to  this  question  is 
the  declaration  of  the  Psalmist:  "The  heavens  de- 
clare the  glory  of  God  and  the  firmament  showeth  his 
handiwork."  The  one  culminating  effect  left  on  the 
soul  by  this  study  is  admiration,  awe,  reverence,  wor- 
ship. It  is  a  spiritual  tonic,  refreshing,  inspiring,  and 
lending  a  subtle  potency  to  the  very  substratum  of 
character. 

You  stand  under  the  glorious  dome  of  St.  PauFs, 
you  traverse  the  aisles  and  chapels  of  Westminster 
Abbey,  you  sit  in  rapture  before  Rubens'  "Descent 
from  the  Cross,"  you  linger  and  dream  in  the  earthly 
paradise  of  the  Lake  District,  or  you  listen  to  the 
peals  of  the  great  organ  as  they  reverberate  through 
"the  long-drawn  aisles  and  fretted  vaults"  of  Durham 
Cathedral.  What  is  the  grand  outcome  of  it  all? 
Have  you  gained  anything  that  you  can  sell  for 
money  or  convert  into  food,  dress  or  shelter?  Or,  if 
you  could,  would  you  sell  it?  Would  you  not  rather 
keep  it  as  a  priceless  possession  than  to  convert  it  into 
any  mere  utility? 

In  matiters  educational  we  are  so  accustomed  to 
raise  the  question  of  utility  at  every  step,  to  inquire 
anxiously  the  money  value  of  this  or  that  study,  and 


A   THEORY   OF    EDUCATION    VALUES  171 

to  ask  how  each  branch  of  knowledge  will  contribute 
to  our  "getting  on  in  the  world/'  that  we  have  prac- 
tically lost  sight  of  the  fact  that  there  is  often  a 
supreme  value  in  mere  possession,  without  any 
thought  of  conversion  into  instrumental  uses,  that 
an  acquirement  often  serves  its  highest  purpose  sim- 
ply as  a  source  of  contemplative  delight.  What  ac- 
count are  we  to  render  of  the  paintings  that  hang  on 
our  walls,  or  of  the  ornaments  that  stand  on  our  man- 
tels ?  Are  we  to  be  picture  venders  or  dealers  in  bric- 
a-brac,  in  order  to  realize  the  value  of  our  art  pos- 
sessions? This  would  be  to  ruin  their  natural  and 
proper  value;  such  a  perversion  would  be  but  little 
short  of  sacrilege.  The  ndblest  value  of  such  art 
treasures  lies  in  their  possession  and  enjoyment;  the 
fact  that  they  "serve  for  delight"  is  their  sufficient 
vindication. 

Money  lying  untouched  in  a  bank  often  has  a 
higher  value  than  money  that  is  expended  in  food  and 
raiment.  In  the  way  of  an  abiding  and  bracing  sense 
of  security,  a  deposit  has  a  moral  value  that  far 
transcends  the  value  of  money  that  is  employed  in 
mere  utilities.  The  moral  value  of  life  insurance  is 
incalculable.  The  person  insured  does  not  hope  to 
realize  any  return  or  profit  from  his  investment,  but 


172        THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS 

his  rich  reward  is  found  in  the  feeling  that  his  provi- 
dence will  protect  the  objects  of  his  affection.  This 
feeling  of  security  is  a  moral  tonic  that  is  a  stimulus 
in  health  and  a  medicine  in  illness. 

What  is  here  set  down  as  true  of  material  posses- 
sions is  equally  true  of  those  spiritual  treasures  which 
the  soul  acquires  through  studies — those  possessions 
which  are  chiefly  valuable  because  they  yield  us  con- 
templative delight.  We  cannot  barter  them  for 
bread  or  raiment,  nor  can  we  make  them  the  instru- 
ments of  personal  guidance,  but  their  higher  service 
is  the  "sweetness  and  light"  which  they  diffuse  over 
the  soul,  and  the  tone  and  spring  which  they  give  to 
character.  A  poem  is  neither  a  commodity  nor  an 
instrument,  but  its  subtle  spirit  enters  into  the  very 
structure  and  fiber  of  the  soul,  endowing  it  with 
serenity  and  poise,  while,  as  a  work  of  literary  art,  it 
is  a  perennial  source  of  contemplative  enjoyment.  It 
affects  conduct  througli  character,  just  as  food  affects 
conduct  through  structure.  The  value  of  religious 
literature  does  not  lie  in  rules  and  maxims  that  are 
directly  convertible  into  conduct,  but  in  its  power  to 
transform  and  renew  the  human  soul. 

The  office  of  the  aesthetic  in  human  education  and 
in  ordinary  life  has  not  been  sufficiently  considered. 


A   THEORY   OF    EDUCATION    VALUES  173 

I  have  two  pencils  costing,  respectively,  one  cent  and 
five  cents.  Their  instrumental  value  is  the  same; 
they  both  serve  me  equally  well  in  writing.  Why 
should  one  cost  four  cents  more  than  the  other?  Evi- 
dently because  in  form  and  finish  there  is  an  element 
of  attractiveness  or  beauty  in  the  one  which  has  a 
money  value.  Even  in  such  a  little  thing  as  a  lead 
pencil  we  pay  heavy  tribute  to  the  aesthetic.  But  this 
dual  quality  of  utility  and  beauty  is  universal;  it 
inheres  in  everything  we  buy  or  possess,  in  every  in- 
strument we  use,  in  furniture,  in  dress,  in  every  form 
which  matter  is  made  to  assume  for  human  use.  And 
thus,  in  the  cosmos  as  a  whole,  what  exuberance,  what 
prodigality,  we  might  almost  say,  what  waste  of 
beauty!  In  field  and  forest,  in  mountain  and  plain, 
in  the  heavens  above,  in  the  earth  beneath,  which  L'i 
the  dominant  note,  utility  or  beauty?  I  think  the 
astonishing  but  real  fact  is  that  the  visible  world  is 
primarily  and  chiefly  a  cosmos,  a  thing  beautiful,  and 
that  utility  is  a  secondary  and  subordinate  purpose  in 
its  creation.  This  human  cradle  is  sometimes  hard, 
but  it  is  adorned  with  tree  and  flower  and  canopied 
with  blue  and  gold.  While  man  is  embodying  more 
and  more  of  the  beautiful  in  everything  that  is  fash- 
ioned by  his  hand,  nature  still  outdoes  him  by  creating 


174  THE    EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

tilings  that  are  wholly  beautiful,  things  m  which 
there  is  no  vestige  of  the  useful.  Beauty  is  their 
sole  and  sufficient  excuse  for  being.  As  studies  at 
best  are  but  a  transcript  of  nature,  why  should  not 
education  be  a  reflection  of  the  cosmos?  In  other 
words,  why  should  not  the  dominant  note  in  educa- 
tion be  the  aesthetic,  as  distinguished  from  the  utili- 
tarian? Food  and  drink  and  clothing  are  all  neces- 
sary, but  they  are  subordinate  to  the  kingdom  of  God, 
which  is  not  meat  and  drink,  but  righteousness,  and 
peace,  and  joy.  This  having  been  attained,  all  the 
other  things  will  be  added. 

Studies  whose  major  value  lies  in  their  humane  and 
culture  effect  have  some  or  all  of  the  following  char- 
acteristics: 

They  have  a  large  human  interest;  they  touch  man 
in  what  is  most  intensely  human,  his  hopes,  his  fears, 
his  aspirations,  his  affections,  his  destiny;  they  pul- 
sate with  life  and  feeling,  and  endow  the  individual 
with  the  accumulated  moral  power  of  the  race. 

They  refer  to  some  imposing  unit  that  impresses 
the  mind  by  its  vastness  or  magnitude,  or  to  some 
living,  organic  whole  that  excites  human  interest 
through  the  phenomena  of  life. 

They  give  breadth  and  perspective,  create  a  sense 


A    THEORY    OF    EDUCATION    VALUES  175 

of  mastery  and  power,  and  endow  the  mind  with  mag- 
nanimity and  tolerance. 

They  give  contemplative  delight,  disposing  the 
soul  to  serenity  and  peace,  and  fortifying  it  against 
the  vicissitudes  and  calamities  of  life. 

As  the  question  of  method  is  necessarily  involved 
in  this  subject,  it  is  entitled  to  a  brief  consideration. 

In  his  "Education,"  Mr.  Spencer  utters  a  dictum 
to  the  following  effect:  The  genesis  of  knowledge  in 
the  individual  must  be  the  same  as  the  genesis  of 
knowledge  in  the  race.  In  other  words,  the  individual 
must  gain  his  knowledge  just  as  the  race  gained  its 
knowledge.  Then  follows  this  deduction:  as  the  race 
gained  its  knowledge  inductively  by  experience,  the 
individual  must  gain  his  knowledge  by  experience, 
experiment  or  observation.  He  makes  his  dictum 
still  stronger  by  declaring  that  the  individual  can 
gain  his  knowledge  in  no  other  way. 

Following  this  eminent  authority,  some  modern 
teachers  insist  that  whenever  the  subject  permits  it, 
it  should  be  learned,  not  as  literature,  as  Matthew 
Arnold  advises,  but  by  personal  experience  and  ex- 
periment; that  in  science,  especially,  the  student 
must  actually  discover  or  rediscover  by  his  own  per- 
sonal effort  what  the  race  has  learned  during  its  cen- 


176  THE    EDUCATION   OF   TEACHERS 

turies  of  history.  This  theory  virtually  throws  books 
out  of  court  and  reduces  the  role  of  the  teacher  to 
little  more  than  suggestion  or  guidance;  he  must  not 
communicate  anything  on  his  own  accountj  he  must 
not  interfere  with  the  natural  and  necessary  law 
which  Mr.  Spencer  has  so  clearly  and  so  authorita- 
tively announced.  Without  discussing  this  subject  at 
length,  I  submit  these  observations  which  I  think  will 
commend  themselves  to  the  common  sense  of  all. 

In  that  large  and  very  important  domain  of  knowl- 
edge known  as  the  historical,  the  inductive  or  experi- 
mental method  absolutely  fails.  Historical  events 
cannot  be  reproduced,  and  therefore  cannot  be 
brought  within  the  range  of  the  student's  experience. 
The  facts  of  history  must  be  learned  out  of  books, 
learned  as  literature.  And,  then,  in  literature  and  in 
art,  how  is  it  possible  to  put  the  student  in  the  place 
of  the  original  writer  or  artist,  and  evolve  his  knowl- 
edge by  any  kind  of  experience  such  as  this  theory 
requires? 

In  science  proper,  where  this  theory  is  practicable 
if  anywhere,  it  is  applicable  only  in  a  modified  form 
and  to  a  limited  extent.  In  any  one  science — as 
chemistry — ^to  throw  the  pupil  on  his  own  resources 


A  THEORY  OF  EDUCATION  VALUES      ITT 

and  to  require  him  to  discover  or  even  rediscover  the 
atomic  weights,  would  be  a  farce;  but  when  a  half 
dozen  sciences  are  to  be  treated  in  Mr.  Spencer's 
fashion  within  the  student's  ordinary  term  of  study, 
the  business  becomes  a  piece  of  mere  stupidity. 

The  whole  question  reduces  itself  to  this:  Shall 
we  ride  or  shall  we  walk?  If  the  route  is  short  and 
pleasant,  and  we  have  an  abundance  of  leisure,  we  will 
walk,  but  if  the  journey  is  a  long  one,  and  tedious  in 
whole  or  in  part,  and  we  are  pressed  for  time,  we  will 
ride.  In  fact,  riding  has  become  the  normal  mode  of 
travel,  and  the  little  walking  that  is  done  is  merely 
incidental.  A  trip  to  the  Matterhorn  by  railway 
would  please  all  save  a  few  reckless  enthusiasts.  The 
whole  world  might  then  indulge  in  Alpine  travel. 
Books  are  to  scholars  what  railways  are  to  travelers, 
and  to  condemn  books,  as  some  prolific  bookmakers 
are  accustomed  to  do — Plato,  for  example — is  as 
senseless  as  to  condemn  bicycles,  railway  carriages 
and  steam  vessels.  The  millions  who  need  to  learn 
geography  must  learn  it  out  of  books  rather  than  by 
personal  travel,  and  the  same  thing  is  true  of  all  the 
sciences. 

If  there  is  any  department  of  knowledge  where 
Mr.  Spencer's  theory  ean  be  applied,  it  is  that  of  phi- 


178       THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS 

losophy,  where  all  tlie  material  is  within  the  reach  of 
every  man  who  has  a  head.  But  even  here  Mr.  Spen- 
cer thinks  it  wise  to  lighten  the  student's  burden  by 
doing  the  most  of  his  thinking  for  him,  and  so  invites 
him  to  read  the  volume  of  his  "Synthetic  Philoso- 
phy." If  this  justly  distinguished  philosopher  were 
loyal  to  his  own  announced  creed,  his  vocation  would 
be  gone. 

In  the  third  place,  Mr.  Spencer's  assumption  that 
the  race  has  gained  its  knowledge  solely  by  personal 
experience  in  the  way  of  discovery  is  conspicuously 
and  profoundly  untrue.  The  race  as  such  has  made 
no  discoveries  in  science,  has  created  no  literature, 
has  made  no  original  advances  in  ethics  or  religion, 
has  not  in  any  real  sense  been  even  studious;  but  in 
every  age  it  has  crucified,  stoned  and  persecuted  its 
prophets  and  seers,  and  has  stoutly  resisted  every 
attempt  to  lead  it  up  to  higher  planes  of  in'tellectual 
and  moral  attainment.  In  every  age  the  race  has 
been  saved  by  a  mere  remnant,  and  the  utmost  it  has 
done  for  its  own  progress  is  to  accept  under  protest, 
in  a  spirit  of  defiance  and  hatred,  some  of  the  lessons 
which  its  teachers  have  set  for  it.  The  picture  of  the 
race  engrossed  in  study,  and  with  knitted  brow  at- 
tempting to  read  the  book  of  nature  and  to  solve  the 


A   THEORY   OF   EDUCATION   VALUES  179 

riddle  of  existence,  is  truly  bucolic,  but  wholly  imagi- 
nary— it  lacks  every  trait  of  fact  and  reality.  What- 
ever advance  the  race  has  made  towards  the  higher 
intellectual  and  moral  life,  it  has  made  reluctantly 
and  haltingly,  always  under  stress,  and  with  many 
backslidings.  Kather  than  sit  on  hard  benches  and 
learn  the  daily  lessons  of  wisdom,  it  has  learned  to 
play  truant  and  to  vex  and  harass  its  teachers.  In 
every  age  a  half  dozen  men  have  done  the  thinking 
for  the  race,  in  science,  in  philosophy  and  in  religion, 
and  to-day  the  race  is  a  centrry  behind  its  thinkers 
and  teachers.  The  race  has  made  progress,  not  by 
making  original  discoveries  through  personal  re- 
search, but  by  accepting  the  discoveries  made  by  its 
exceptional  geniuses  and  scholars,  and  it  is  in  this 
way,  in  the  main,  that  the  individual  is  to  gain  his 
knowledge.  The  volume  of  capit.alized  knowledge  is 
ever  becoming  greater  and  greater,  and  the  mastery 
of  this  knowledge  through  the  interpretation  of  books 
is  to  be  the  main  occupation  of  the  student.  The  real 
additions  to  existing  knowledge  will  be  made  by  a 
half  dozen  men  in  the  course  of  a  century,  so  that  the 
main  function  of  schools  and  teachers  is  diffusion 
rather  than  discovery. 

The  question  will  be  asked  whether  there  is  not  a 


180  THE   EDUCATION   OF   TEACHERS 

place  for  actual  o^servaition  and  experiment  m  the 
study  of  science.  Most  assuredly,  but  not  under  the 
delusion  that  the  purpose  is  discovery  or  rediscovery. 
In  physics,  the  actual  manipulation  of  apparatus  is 
invaluable,  because  it  gives  a  comfortable  sense  of 
reality  to  the  study,  as  well  as  an  introduction  to  the 
modes  and  processes  of  scientific  investigation.  The 
pretense  sometimes  set  up  that  students  under  ordi- 
nary conditions  are  to  reach  independent  conclusions 
by  a  course  of  inductive  study  is  a  sort  of  pious  fraud, 
useful  mainly  to  bookmakers  and  to  pedants.  When 
this  theory  of  critical  and  independent  study  is  ap- 
plied to  literature  and  art,  the  results  are  most  deplo- 
rable. In  these  departments  the  critical  spirit  is  un- 
seemly and  mischievous,  even  in  the  higher  courses 
of  instruction;  but  when  in  grammar  schools,  or  even 
in  colleges,  students  who  barely  have  the  gift  of  ap- 
preciation presume  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the  works  of 
poets  and  painters,  and  to  express  ex  cathedra  opin- 
ions on  their  merits  and  demerits,  the  sight  is  sicken- 
ing. What  a  school  of  modesty,  respect  and  rever- 
ence! 

Mr.  Spencer  pleads  the  "beautiful  economy  of  na- 
ture" to  support  his  declaration  that  the  studies  that 
are  best  for  guidance  are  also  the  best  for  discipline. 


A  THEORY  OF  EDUCATION  VALUES      181 

This  case  illustrates  the  vice  of  the  high  a  priori 
metihod  in  philosophy.  The  assumption  of  "nature" 
as  a  faultless  guide  is  a  pure  fiction,  and  any  argument 
based  upon  it  is  unworthy  of  serious  attention. 
Whether  a  good  disciplinary  study  is  also  a  study 
that  is  equally  good  for  guidance  is  a  mere  question 
of  fact,  and  all  the  faots  in  the  case  point  to  an  oppo- 
site conclusion.  For  example,  algebra  is  a  better  dis- 
ciplinary subject  than  arithmetic,  but  for  the  general 
student  is  nearly  valueless  for  guidance;  and  in  arith- 
metic itself  the  parts  that  are  the  most  remote  from 
the  student's  daily  needs,  such  as  the  roots,  pro- 
gressions, etc.,  are  the  parts  that  yield  the  highest 
discipline.  An  interest  table,  a  mere  machine,  is  far 
more  "practical"  than  the  doctrine  of  percentage,  but 
no  one  will  say  that  the  daily  use  of  such  a  table  has 
any  appreciable  disciplinary  value.  It  would  be  far 
nearer  the  truth  to  say  that  the  s-tudies  that  yield 
themselves  the  most  readily  to  guidance  are  the  least 
valuable  for  disciplinary  purposes. 

The  main  positions  taken  in  this  chapter  will  now 
be  recapitulated  in  the  form  of  a  general  summary , 

Studies  are  the  agents  which  the  teacher  employs 
in  the  practice  of  his  art,  and  if  his  practice  is  to  be 


182       THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS 

rational  lie  must  needs  know  the  education  value  of 
these  several  agents. 

Skill  in  teaching  consists  in  ministering  wisely  to 
the  wants  of  the  mind  and  soul,  and  so  the  first  ele- 
ment in  the  teacher's  professional  knowledge  is  psy- 
chological. 

The  first  need  of  the  uneducated  mind  is  discipline, 
or  the  endowing  of  its  activities  with  power  and  skill; 
and  corresponding  to  this  need  there  are  studies  whose 
preeminent  value  lies  in  the  fact  that  they  are  a  men- 
tal gymnastic. 

Another  need  of  the  mind  is  instrumental  knowl- 
edge, or  knowledge  that  can  be  converted  into  per- 
sonal guidance,  or  into  the  utilities  of  life;  and  cor- 
responding to  this  need  there  are  studies  whose  major 
value  consists  in  their  ready  convertibility  into  guid- 
ance and  utility.  This  instrumental  value  of  knowl- 
edge is  either  direct  or  indirect;  that  is,  it  accrues  to 
the  individual  through  his  own  abilities,  or  it  reaches 
him  indirectly  through  specialists. 

An  organic  need  of  the  soul  is  serenity,  poise,  con- 
templative enjoyment  and  a  chastening  and  purifying 
of  the  emotional  nature  as  the  basis  of  character;  and 
responding  to  this  need  there  are  studies  of  the  cul- 
ture type,  whose  supreme  value  lies  in  the  fact  that 


A  THEORY  OF  EDUCATION  VALUES     183 

they  "serve  for  deligM;"  that  they  are  breadth- 
giving,  pleasure-giving;  that  they  generate  moral 
power  and  reenforce  character;  and  that  they  endow 
the  soul  with  judicial  poise  and  oalm. 

Studies,  therefore,  serve  three  distinct  purposes,  or 
supply  three  distinct  organic  needs,  and  hence  have 
three  distinct  values:  disciplinary,  instrumental,  and 
culture.    These  values  may  be  tabulated  as  follows: 

j-DiBCiplinary  ^^^^^ 

Education  Values  <  Instrumental  < 


j  i  Indirect 


Culture 

Every  study  has  a  characteristic  or  major  value, 
and  one  or  both  of  two  minor  values.  Every  study 
has  a  disciplinary  value,  high  or  low,  and  it  often  hap- 
pens that  the  studies  most  valuable  for  discipline  have 
a  low  value  for  guidance. 

Disciplinary  studies  require  the  mind  to  work  at 
high  tension,  under  stimulus  and  stress;  but  the  mind 
may  deal  with  culture  studies  while  in  a  state  of  com- 
parative repose,  simply  receptive  rather  than  active. 

The  conception  that  learning  is  to  be  a  process  of 
rediscovery,  in  which  the  pupil  is  to  repeat  the  expe- 
riences of  the  race,  is  "a  bold  fiction."  The  attitude 
of  the  learner  must  often  be  that  of  simple  acceptance 
on  faith,  and  much  that  has  been  originally  acquired 


184  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

by  slow  and  painful  inductive  effort  must  now  be 
learned  as  literature,  by  the  reading  and  study  of 
books.  We  may  now  ride  where  the  pioneers  in 
learning  were  obliged  to  walk;  we  may  draw  water 
without  the  labor  and  cost  of  digging  a  well ;  we  miss 
the  discipline  of  pioneer  toil,  but  we  have  immeasu- 
rable gains  in  "sweetness  and  light." 


EQUITY  IN  EXAMINATIONS 


VIII 

EQUITY  IN  EXAMINATIONS. 

It  is  my  belief  that  the  almost  universal  antago- 
nism between  students  and  their  instructors,  and  the 
existence  of  a  code  of  school  morality  quite  distinct 
from  that  code  of  morals  that  obtains  outside  the 
school,  are  due  in  large  measure  to  an  injustice,  not 
to  say  immorality,  originally  introduced  into  exami- 
nations by  instructors  themselves.  By  means  of  his 
examination  paper  a  teacher  may  make  himself  the 
arbiter  of  his  pupiFs  fate;  he  can  condemn  him  to  any 
desired  degree  of  humiliation,  can  block  his  progress 
in  the  school,  and  can  send  him  home  in  disgrace. 
By  constructing  his  paper  on  unjust  principles,  or  by 
looseness  or  injustice  in  the  management  of  results, 
a  teacher  may  decimate  his  class  and  spread  a  con- 
sternation throughout  the  school  that  is  demoralizing 
to  the  last  degree.  In  the  hands  of  an  unwise  or  un- 
just teacher,  the  examination  paper  becomes  a  sort 
of  Gatling  gun  mowing  down  its  score  of  hapless  vic- 
tims. "Woe  to  the  school  where  this  instrument  of 
tremendous  power  is  used  unwisely  or  maliciously! 
It  creates  secret  hostility  between  teacher  and  pupil; 


188  THE   EDUCATION   OF   TEACHERS 

arbitrary  power,  unjustly  exercised,  is  offset  by  tricks 
and  frauds  on  the  part  of  the  victims;  and  the  school 
becomes  the  scene  of  sorry  encounters  between  those 
who  should  be  united  by  the  ties  of  a  common  in- 
terest and  a  common  respect.  I  have  purposely 
thrown  this  dark  side  of  examinations  into  sharp  out- 
line, for  it  is  my  purpose  to  find  a  cure,  if  possible, 
for  the  evils  that  have  sprung  from  the  misuse  of  an 
instrument  that  is  in  itself  not  only  valuable,  but  in- 
valuable. 

Leaving  out  of  present  consdderation  the  purposes 
served  by  an  examination  as  a  motive  and  a  discipline, 
I  will  discuss  its  use  as  a  test. 

An  examination  properly  conceived  and  conducted 
puts  to  the  proof  both  the  wisdom  and  the  skill  of  the 
teacher  and  the  degree  to  which  the  pupil  has  profited 
by  his  opportunities.  During  a  term  of  weeks  a 
teacher  has  been  expending  his  wisdom  and  skill  in 
the  production  of  a  desired  result — some  proficiency 
of  his  pupil  in  knowledge,  some  gain  in  mental  dis- 
cipline, some  additiion  to  culture  and  moral  power. 
Simply  as  an  artist,  on  his  own  personal  account,  he 
needs  to  know  with  some  exactness  the  degree  of  his 
success.  For  this  purpose  he  can  do  no  less  than 
resort  to  an  examination  of  his  work,  to  an  inquest 


EQUITY    IN    EXAMINATIONS  189 

for  results.  The  mason  must  try  Ms  wall  by  the 
plumb  line,  the  seaman  his  course  by  compass  and 
chronometer,  the  political  economist  his  theories  by 
statistics,  every  successful  workman  his  work  by 
methods  in  keeping  with  the  nature  of  his  craft. 

Teacher  and  pupil  are  coordinate  factors  in  the 
work  of  education.  The  teacher  has  duties  to  himself 
and  to  his  pupil;  the  pupil,  duties  to  himself  and  to 
his  teacher.  The  pupil  must  be  responsive  to  his  op- 
portunities, and  from  time  to  time  should  give  proof 
that  he  has  been  loyal  to  duty.  In  subjects  where 
there  is  logical  sequence  he  must  make  it  clear  that 
he  has  a  knowledge  of  the  lower  topic  sufficient  to 
justify  his  admission  to  the  higher.  For  these  pur- 
poses some  test  must  be  applied,  not  the  same  in  all 
cases,  but  varying  with  the  nature  of  the  theme  and 
with  the  nature  of  the  product  to  be  tested.  As  it  is 
at  this  point  that  examinations  so  often  break  down, 
attention  must  be  called  to  some  distinctions  in  su'b- 
jects  as  seen  from  an  examiner's  point  of  view. 

The  subjects  included  in  a  course  of  study  serve 
different  purposes,  produce  different  results,  and  have 
different  values.  In  some  cases  the  desired  end  is 
knowing,  in  others  doing,  and  in  still  others  being. 
In  some  cases  the  mind  must  work  at  high  tension, 


190  THE    EDUCATION   OF   TEACHERS 

every  power  alert  and  in  a  state  of  intense  activity; 
in  others  the  mind  is  chiefly  in  a  receptive  attitude,  in 
a  state  of  repose,  simply  absorbing  the  impressions 
made  upon  it,  without  putting  forth  any  conscious 
volitional  effort;  and  in  still  others  there  is  a  middle 
state  of  activity,  the  grasping  and  holding  of  material 
by  the  power  of  the  memory.  In  other  words,  there 
is  a  maximum,  a  minimum  and  a  medium  of  mental 
exertion  and  effort.  So  far  as  subject  matter  is  con- 
cerned knowledge  is  either  employed  to  generate 
power,  somewhat  as  dumb-bells  are  used  to  strengthen 
the  muscles,  or  it  quietly  passes  into  structure  by  a 
process  of  absorption  and  assimilation,  or  it  is  simply 
held  in  the  mind  as  useful  furniture  ready  on  occa- 
sion to  be  turned  to  practical  account.  The  mind 
must  often  be  made  to  work  at  high  tension,  under 
the  lash  and  goad,  and  the  justification  of  this  pro- 
cedure is  discipline;  study  and  recitation  are  a  mental 
gymnastic,  and  the  teacher  a  trainer  or  gymnasiarch. 
But  at  the  other  extreme,  the  mind  must  often  be  al- 
lowed to  work  at  low  tension,  in  a  state  almost  passive, 
in  an  attitude  of  repose  favorable  to  nourishment  and 
growth.  I  am  coming  to  think  that  this  is  the  normal 
mental  state,  the  only  state  favorable  to  that  organic 
growth  which  constitutes  character.     In  all  of  its 


EQUITY    IN    EXAMINATIONS  191 

highest  aspects  education  is  growth,  and  all  true 
growth,  as  we  know,  is  insensible,  unconscious;  of  the 
fact  or  result  of  growth  we  may  become  conscious, 
but  not  of  the  process.  Give  the  mind  food  in  proper 
quantity  and  of  proper  quality,  and  growth,  in  the 
main,  will  take  care  of  itself;  if  any  stimulus  is  needed 
let  it  be  gentle. 

"We  should  divest  ourselves  of  the  conceit  that  the 
main  purpose  of  the  school  is  drill.  If  all  the  teach- 
ers in  a  school  were  drillmasters,  the  school  would 
soon  become  converted  into  an  asylum  of  lunatics,  of 
imbeciles  or  of  cranks.  The  situation  is  saved  by  the 
so-called  "easy  subjects,"  for  which  we  sometimes  feel 
the  need  of  making  an  apology.  If  periods  of  com- 
parative repose  did  not  alternate  with  periods  of  high 
pressure  and  mitigate  their  severity,  education  in  its 
real  sense  would  become  impossible,  and  the  mind 
would  lose  its  just  balance.  An  ideal  in  education  is 
yet  to  be  realized :  to  make  a  fair  adjustment  between 
disciplinary  studies  and  culture  or  growth  studies, 
and  by  way  of  relief  introduce  into  subjects  which 
lend  themselves  most  readily  to  drill,  something  that 
will  regale,  nourish  and  refresh.  Let  us  temper  gym- 
nastic with  music,  using  this  term  in  Plato's  sense. 
Let  us  gain  firm  hold  of  the  notion  that  the  mind 


192       THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS 

must  be  fed  as  well  as  trained;  that  nurture  should 
not  only  accompany  training,  but  that  wholesome  and 
liberal  nurture  is  the  essential  condition  of  training. 
Let  us  also  acknowledge  another  coordinate  truth: 
that  with  the  mind  as  with  the  body,  when  training 
passes  a  certain  point  it  not  only  prevents  growth, 
but  leads  to  perversion  and  distortion  of  structure. 
The  law,  both  of  physical  and  of  mental  gymnastic, 
is  this:  make  training  subsidiary  to  development  and 
growth;  do  not  insist  on  it  for  its  own  sake;  use  it 
simply  as  a  means  to  a  higher  end. 

From  an  examiner's  point  of  view,  the  subjects  con- 
stituting a  course  of  study  may  be  distinguished  as 
follows:  1.  Knowledge  or  information  subjects;  2. 
disciplinary  subjects;  3.  culture,  growth,  or  humane 
subjects.  Owing  to  the  circumstance  that  a  given 
subject,  in  addition  to  its  major  or  characteristic 
value,  has  one  or  two  minor  values,  these  classifica- 
tions overlap,  but  the  main  lines  of  demarkation  may 
be  determined  without  serious  trouble.  It  is  also  to 
be  observed  that  by  a  special  method  of  instruction 
the  natural  use  of  a  subject  may  be  sacrificed  to  a 
perverted  use,  and  its  proper  classification  destroyed. 
Again,  the  elementary  parts  of  a  subject  may  fall 


EQUITY    IN    EXAMINATIONS  193 

under  the  first  description,  while  the  advanced  parts 
pertain  to  the  second  or  to  the  third  classification. 

The  following  may  be  taken  aa  examples  of  knowl- 
edge or  information  subjects;  tables  of  weights  and 
measures,  names  and  dates  in  history,  local  and  de- 
scriptive geography,  mere  facts  of  physical  science, 
the  precepts  of  hygiene,  and,  in  general,  th©  "litera- 
ture of  knowledge." 

All  subjects  necessarily  have  some  degree  of  dis- 
ciplinary value,  for  they  can  be  learned  only  by  some 
degree  of  mental  effort,  high  of  low;*  but  certain 
subjects  produce  the  disciplinary  effect  in  a  preemi- 
nent degree,  while  their  practical  and  culture  effects 
are  either  nil  or  very  small.  The  disciplinary  studies 
of  the  common  school  course  are  grammar,  the  ad- 
vanced parts  of  arithmetic,  algebra,  geometry,  and 
trigonometry. 

The  subjects  whose  preeminent  value  is  their  con- 
tribution to  culture  and  growth,  which  give  breadth, 
moral  power  and  contemplative  delight,  are  geogra- 
phy, history,  literature,  science,  art,  music. 

This  whole  discussion  assumes  that  the  instrumen- 

*Mutation€  viget,  viretgue  acquvrit  eundo,  Virgil.    Milo,  having 
been  accustomed  to  carry  the  same  calf  every  day,  ended  \iF 
carrying  an  ox.    Quintilian. 
13 


194  THE    EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

tai  arts  of  speaking,  reading,  writing  and  spelling 
have  been  adequately  learned;  they  condition  study, 
recitation  and  examination.  If  this  were  a  study  of 
values,  instead  of  examinations,  these  arts  would  be 
considered  under  the  head  of  practical  studies. 

In  conducting  an  examination  in  knowledge  sub- 
jects, it  must  be  assumed  that  nothing  can  be  revealed 
but  matters  of  faot.  It  is  not  a  question  of  opinion, 
of  taste  nor  even  of  judgment,  but  simply  of  fact; 
and  the  questions  proposed  by  the  examiner  should 
require  of  the  pupil  nothing  but  statement  of  fact. 
When  the  examiner's  questions  have  been  correctly 
answered,  what  inferences  are  to  be  drawn?  At  least 
within  the  region  of  the  inquest,  there  must  have  been 
diligence,  attention,  memory  and  recollection.  This 
is  all  that  can  safely  be  inferred  from  correct  answers. 
The  important  thing  to  note  is  that  by  means  of  such 
examinations  nothing  definite  can  be  inferred  as  to 
the  higher  qualities  of  the  mind  and  spirit,  such  as 
judgment,  taste,  reflection,  versatility,  insight, 
breadth,  skill,  etc.  Doubtless  all  examinations  must 
deal  more  or  less  in  matters  of  fact,  and  for  this  rea- 
son it  is  important  to  understand  how  very  limited  is 
the  range  of  inference  which  such  matter  allows. 

When  we  advance  to  subjects  of  the  second  class 


EQUITY    IN   EXAMINATIONS  195 

we  enter  a  wider  and  more  fruitful  field  of  inquest. 
The  searchlight  of  the  examination  penetrates  farther 
and  illuminates  wider  regions  of  the  mind  and  spirit. 
The  question  is  not  merely,  what  is  the  fact?  but, 
what  use  can  you  make  of  this  fact?  In  this  region 
the  mind  can  be  made  to  exercise  its  power  of  doing, 
as  distinguished  from  its  power  of  knowing.  Having 
learned  the  rule  of  Square  Eoot,  the  pupil  may  be 
required  to  extract  the  square  root  of  an  assigned 
number;  or,  having  learned  the  principle  of  Cube 
Root,  he  may  be  required  to  demonstrate  the  princi- 
ple of  Fourth  Root.  And  so  in  grammar,  knowing 
may  be  easily  converted  into  doing.  'Not  only  do  the 
principles  and  rules  of  grammar  lead  directly  to  the 
constructive  effort,  but  the  art  of  parsing  is  the  art 
of  classification,  an  art  that  requires  the  nicest  insight 
and  the  best  powers  of  judgment.  The  mere  art  of 
reasoning  is  best  learned  from  mathematical  drill, 
but  the  application  of  this  art  to  contingent  or  proble- 
matic matter  is  best  learned  from  the  classification 
of  words.  Parsing  is  strictly  a  logical  process,  but 
before  this  process  can  begin,  the  sentence  as  a  whole 
must  be  interpreted,  and  as  the  interpretation  varies, 
the  marks  of  words  also  vary,  so  that  this  exercise 
calls  into  play  the  balancing  of  probabilities.     The 


196        THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS 

real  import  of  grammatical  discipline  will  become 
more  apparent  as  we  reflect  that  its  problems  are  the 
very  type  of  the  problems  that  are  of  hourly  occur- 
rence in  human  life.  Another  point  in  favor  of  gram- 
matical discipline  is  the  fact  that  it  is  concerned,  not 
with  abstract  quantities,  as  in  mathematics,  but  with 
what  is  intensely  vital  and  human — thoug'ht  expressed 
in  significant  words.  I  call  attention  to  these  facts 
to  show  what  significant  inferences  may  be  drawn 
from  an  examination  in  the  disciplinary  subjects. 
The  mind  is  not  exhibited  in  its  passive  state,  holding 
in  its  possession  certain  furniture,  but  as  an  active 
power  devoted  to  its  characteristic  function,  thinking. 
I  would  say,  then,  that  a  prime  purpose  of  an  exami- 
nation in.  what  may  be  termed  art  subjects  should  be 
to  discover  the  pupil's  ability  to  think.  In  this,  as  in 
the  former  case,  it  should  be  noted  that  the  region  of 
the  emotions,  feelings,  taste,  of  all  that  is  most  truly 
human,  is  left  for  the  most  part  untouched;  there  is 
little  or  no  revelation  of  the  real  inner  life. 

Exception  will  no  doubt  be  made  to  the  composi- 
tion of  the  third  group  of  subjects.  For  example,  the 
study  of  the  sciences  will  be  recommended  by  some 
on  the  ground  of  their  practical  value,  and  by  others 
they  will  be  placed  in  the  second  group,  because,  when 


EQUITY    IN    EXAMINATIONS  197 

taugtt  inductively,  they  form  sucli  an  admirable  dis- 
cipline. In  the  first  place,  the  day  has  forever  passed 
when  every  man  is  to  be  his  own  doctor,  lawyer,  hat- 
ter and  chemist.  By  reason  of  the  minute  division  of 
labor  most  of  the  eo-called  useful  subjects  have  be- 
come useful  only  in  a  secondary  or  indirect  way.  Men 
may  participate  in  the  practical  benefits  of  chemistry 
without  having  any  personal  knowledge  of  this 
science,  just  as  they  wear  hats  and  coats  without  being 
hatters  and  tailors.  In  the  second  place,  considering 
the  fact  that  a  student  must  learn  a  half  dozen 
sciences  within  three  or  four  years,  the  attempt  to 
teach  these  subjects  in  a  manner  that  is  in  any  ade- 
quate sense  inductive,  is  a  pretence  and  a  sham.  I 
hold  that  the  sciences  have  a  higher  and  a  nobler  pur- 
pose, that  of  explaining  and  interpreting  to  us  the 
universe  in  which  we  live.  The  sciences  have  but 
little  direct  practical  value  to  people  in  general;  as 
they  must  necessarily  be  taught,  they  have  a  dis- 
ciplinary value  only  in  a  secondary  degree;  but  their 
major  value  is  of  the  culture  or  human  type.  They 
contribute  breadth,  enjoyment,  reverence,  poise,  se- 
renity. 

There  will  be  no  dispute  as  to  the  rank  and  ofllce 
of  literature  in  a  scheme  of  education.     "The  true 


198  THE    EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

reason  why  literature  should  have  precedence  over 
all  other  suibjects  of  instruction  is  that  it  is  a  sort  of 
free  and  living  philosophy.  It  is  a  general  outlook 
upon  the  world,  first  upon  the  world  of  sense  and 
imagination,  the  first  with  which  the  child  comes  in 
contact,  and  then  upon  the  intellectual,  social  and 
moral  world;  it  is  a  series  of  dissertations  on  art, 
morals  and  science.  Literature  is  something  even 
more  than  this.  It  is,  we  might  say,  the  very  beat- 
ing of  the  heart  of  humanity,  a  beating  which  must 
be  communicated  to  all  if  we  do  not  wish  to  have  it 
cease."*  Ancient  classics  have  been  very  properly 
called  the  humane  studies,  or  the  humanities,  because 
of  their  effect  on  character  and  life,  and  modern 
classics  have  a  right  to  the  same  distinction  and  desig- 
nation. By  a  perversion  of  use,  an  English  classic  is 
sometimes  made  a  vehicle  for  teaching  etymology, 
linguistics  and  history,  and  by  a  sort  of  ultimate 
analysis  is  spoiled  as  a  work  of  literary  art,  sacrificed 
to  the  demon  of  thoroughness  and  drill.  There  is  a 
sort  of  proximate  analysis  that  enhances  the  sense  of 
organic  unity  in  a  work  of  art,  and  up  to  this  point 
it  is  helpful  and  to  be  commended;  but  any  analysis 
that  breaks  the  spell  of  artistic  unity  is  fatal  to  the 
*Pouill6. 


EQUITY   IN    EXAMINATIONS  199 

noble  uses  of  any  work  of  art,  be  it  a  statue,  a  paint- 
ing, or  a  poem. 

It  is  only  by  some  perversion  of  use  that  geogra- 
phy, history  and  literature  lend  themselves  to  drill. 
They  constitute  a  trio  of  humane  or  culture  studies 
whose  purposes  may  be  thus  defined: 

The  purpose  of  geographical  study  is  to  make  the 
pupil  acquainted  with  the  dwelling  place  of  the  race; 
of  historical  study,  to  make  him  acquainted  with  the 
notable  deeds  of  the  race;  and  of  literary  study,  to 
acquaint  him  with  the  best  that  the  race  has  done  in 
the  way  of  creating  ideals  of  human  excellence  in 
thought,  conduct  and  aspization. 

I  believe  that  any  one  who  meditates  long  and  se- 
riously on  the  educational  problem  and  on  the  nature 
of  the  various  subjects  constituting  a  course  of  study, 
will  feel  more  and  more  disposed  to  enlarge  the  third 
group  of  subjects  and  to  assign  less  and  less  value  to 
the  so-called  practical  studies  in  a  scheme  of  general 
education.  If  the  objective  point  in  education  is 
manhood,  character  and  a  high  type  of  life,  then  the 
fir&t  place  must  be  given  to  those  studies  which  are 
breadth-giving,  inspiring  and  humane. 

From  the  outline  thus  far  given  I  now  deduce  the 
following  rule  of  practice  for  individual  teachers: 


200  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

Form  a  clear  conception  of  the  nature  and  purpose 
of  your  subject;  teach  it  in  a  manner  to  accomplish 
this  purpose  in  the  most  direct  and  efficient  way;  and 
then  resort  to  an  examination  that  will  discover  the 
extent  to  which  this  purpose  has  been  accomplished. 

I  now  turn  to  the  question  of  the  examination 
paper  and  the  principles  on  which  it  should  be  con- 
structed. The  first  principle  seems  to  me  to  be  this: 
in  its  scope,  the  examination  paper  should  be  restricted 
to  the  field  of  study  actually  traversed  by  the  pupil 
under  the  guidance  and  direction  of  the  teacher. 

It  is  manifestly  unfair  and  unjust  to  spring  sur- 
prises on  the  pupil  by  demanding  what  he  has  not  had 
an  opportunity  to  learn.  As  a  preparation  for  setting 
an  examination  paper,  the  teacher  should  ask  himself 
these  questions:  "What  ground  have  I  traversed  with 
this  class  ?  What  knowledge  have  I  given  these  pupils 
a  perfectly  fair  opportunity  to  gain?  What  degree 
of  constructive  power  over  new_  com'binations  have 
they  had  an  opportunity  to  acquire?"  What  I  want 
to  insist  on  is  absolute  fairness  in  these  dealings  with 
students.  I  have  known  at  least  one  instance  wherein 
one-half  of  an  examination  paper  bore  upon  matter 
which  the  class  had  never  had  the  opportunity  to 
learn.     The  first  effect  of  this  paper  was  dismay,  and 


EQUITY    IN    EXAMINATIONS  201 

then  a  determination  to  offset  wrong  by  wrong,  so 
that  pupils  who  never  cheated  before  now  resorted  to 
cheating  with  a  will. 

Another  principle,  or  rather  the  first  principle 
stated  in  a  different  form,  is  this;  An  examination 
paper  should  represent  the  state  of  the  pupil's  mind 
rather  than  the  state  of  the  teacher's  mind. 

This  is  very  far  from  being  a  needless  caution. 
We  are  all  in  danger  of  putting  too  high  value  on 
our  acquisitions,  especially  when  they  are  in  any 
sense  unique  or  exceptional.  With  this  feeling  it  is 
natural  to  give  such  acquirements  an  airing,  and  the 
examination  paper  furnishes  an  attractive  opportu- 
nity. Instead  of  putting  ourselves  as  much  as  possi- 
ble in  our  pupil's  place,  we  put  him  in  ours,  and  then 
exact  of  him  what  our  larger  opportunities  have  given 
us.  A  young  tutor  whom  I  once  knew  signalized  his 
passage  from  the  bench  to  the  chair  by  setting  an 
examination  paper  which  floored  nearly  the  whole 
class.  The  professor  in  that  department  confessed 
that  he  could  not  have  satisfied  the  demands  of  his 
tutor's  paper. 

Another  principle  to  be  observed  is  this :  An  exam- 
ination paper  should  open  up  the  highways  and  not 
the    byways    of    knowledge — important    dates    and 


202  THE   EDUCATION   OF   TEACHERS 

places,  major  facts,  cardinal  principles,  typical  ex- 
amples; not  the  trivial,  but  the  respectable. 

Examinations  have  suffered  not  a  little  in  reputa- 
tion from  the  circumstance  that  they  have  often  been 
employed  to  puzzle  and  disconcert  hapless  students. 
There  is  no  objection  to  a  question  which  startles  the 
pupil  into  thinking,  but  there  is  no  excuse  for  dwell- 
ing by  preference  on  matters  purely  trivial  and  un- 
important. Some  things  are  so  trifling  and  valueless 
that  it  is  almost  a  disgrace  to  know  them.  An  exami- 
nation paper  should  have  an  air  of  dignity  and  respec- 
tability and  the  moral  quality  of  fairness. 

The  three  groups  of  subjects  previously  designated 
indicate  in  an  ascending  series  three  degrees  of  diffi- 
culty in  the  construction  of  examination  papers  that 
propose  to  discover  the  effects  produced  on  the  pupil 
by  his  several  studies.  It  is  easy  to  test  the  mere 
holding  and  recollecting  power  of  the  mind,  by  re- 
quiring the  pupil  to  reproduce  or  restore  what  has 
been  given  him  to  memorize.  In  other  words,  it  is 
easy  to  take  an  inventory  of  this  kind  of  mental  fur- 
niture. It  is  not  so  easy,  however,  to  frame  a  paper 
that  will  test  the  pupiFs  power  to  think  and  his  aMity 
to  construct  on  lines  somewhat  different  from  those 
to  which  he  has  been  accustomed  by  his  class-room 


EQUITY    IN    EXAMINATIONS 

experiencea.  Good  instruction  in  the  disciplinary 
subjects  should  create  a  certain  facile  independence, 
and  should  generate  the  power  to  overcome  difficul- 
ties of  larger  and  larger  proportions.  Such  an  exami- 
nation will  bear  on  principles  rather  than  on  rules, 
on  types  rather  than  on  single  instances.  A  pupil 
who  can  give  a  clear  analysis  of  the  divisions  of  one 
fraction  by  another  may  be  presumed  to  understand 
all  that  has  preceded  this  part  of  the  subject.  If  he 
can  demonstrate  the  principle  that  underlies  Propor- 
tion, it  is  certain  that  his  understanding,  and  not 
merely  his  memory,  has  received  a  training.  When  a 
pupil  can  turn  an  English  sentence  into  idiomatic 
French,  German,  or  Latin,  there  is  proof  positive 
that  he  has  gained  the  power  to  think  in  a  second  lan- 
guage, and  that  he  has  mastered  its  etymology  and 
syntax.  There  is  no  finer  discipline  than  translation, 
for  it  involves  three  difficult  intellectual  feats:  the 
separation  of  the  thought  from  its  original  symbols; 
the  grasping  of  it  as  a  distinct  mental  possession ;  and 
the  embodying  of  it  in  a  new  set  of  symbols.  The 
very  same  thing  takes  place  in  English  when  the  pupil 
expresses  the  author^s  thought  in  his  own  language, 
by  an  exchange  of  symbols.  Such  exercises  are  an 
effectual  test,  not  only  of  knowledge,  but  of  power. 


204  THE    EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

But  what  test  can  we  employ  to  discover  the  high- 
est uses  that  can  be  made  of  knowledge,  when  it  has 
lost  its  identity  through  a  process  of  elaboration  and 
assimilation,  and  has  been  transformed  into  character, 
ha'bit,  opinion,  emotion,  power?    It  is  easy  enough  to 
discover  whether  the  pupil  really  has  the  knowledge 
that  is  capable  of  being  transformed  into  these  spirit- 
ual products,  but  is  it  possible  to  frame  an  examina- 
tion that  will   discover  these  products   themselves? 
We  must  remember  that  knowledge  often  falls  short 
of  its  highest  uses;  that  there  is  much  reading  that 
does  not  affect  the  heart  and  the  life;  that  there  is 
much  seeing  and  but  little  discernment;  that  of  the 
throngs  that   each  day  crowd   the  galleries  of  the 
Louvre  perhaps  not  one  in  a  hundred  suffers  any  per- 
manent change  of  heart  towards  the  fine  arts;  and 
that  men  may  listen  with  respectful  attention  to  the 
preaching  of  the  Gospel  without  the  least  spiritual 
edification.     To  use  Bacon's  figure,  we  may  be  as- 
sured by  an  examination  that  the  right  kind  of  food 
has  been  swallowed,  'but  we  cannot  infer  from  this 
circumstance  that  it  has  really  been  digested.    Seeing 
this  difficulty  in  the  matter  of  literary  study,  Dr. 
Corson  proposes  a  solution  in  this  wise: 

^^ow  is  the  best  response  to  the  essential  life  of  a 


EQUITY    IN    EXAMINATIONS 


205 


poem  to  be  secured  by  the  teacher  from  the  student? 
I  answer,  by  the  fullest  interpretive  vocal  rendering 
of  it.  *  *  *  A  literary  examination  may 
then  be  made  to  mean  something.  The  student,  in- 
stead of  being  catechised  about  the  merely  intellectual 
articulation  of  a  poem,  the  occasion  of  its  composition, 
the  influences  which  the  poet  was  under  when  he 
composed  it,  the  vocabulary,  and  a  thousand  other 
things,  will  be  required  to  render  it  in  order  that  he 
may  show,  through  his  voice,  to  what  extent  he  has 
experienced  it  within  himself,  responded  to  and  as- 
similated what  the  intellect  cannot  define  or  formu- 
late.''* 

This  is  no  doubt  an  approach  to  the  solution  of  a 
grave  difficulty,  but  as  it  is  easy  to  simulate  emotion, 
we  cannot  be  sure  that  this  vocal  rendering  of  a  poem 
may  not  be  mere  acting;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
lack  of  vocal  training  may  prevent  the  expression  of 
thought  and  emotion  that  really  affect  the  life.  At 
best,  however,  this  solution  affects  but  one  member 
of  the  wide  group  I  am  now  considering,  and  speak- 
ing of  this  group  as  a  whole,  I  see  no  sure  way  of 
overcoming  this  great  difficulty,  no  way  of  determin- 
ing conditions  of  spirit  by  means  of  an  examination. 

•  •'  The  Aims  of  Literary  Study,"  pp.  99,  103. 


206        THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS 

But  examinations  should  not  be  abandoned  on  this 
account,  any  more  than  teaching  itself  should  be 
abandoned.  Teaching  should  be  reinforced  by  exami- 
nation, and  the  best  we  can  do  is  to  assume  that  when 
the  instruction  has  been  of  the  thorough  and  inspir- 
ing kind,  and  when  the  pupil  has  done  his  intellectual 
work  with  thoroughness,  the  transformation  into 
character  and  power  will  follow  as  a  consequence. 

In  the  region  where  this  inquiry  lies  the  mere 
presence  of  knowledge  is  no  proof  that  the  character 
and  the  life  have  been  affected,  nor  is  its  absence  any 
proof  that  there  has  been  no  spiritual  growth.  With 
the  mind  as  with  the  body,  nutriment  must  lose  its 
identity  before  it  can  be  transformed  into  structure 
and  power.  A  poem  may  have  performed  its  highest 
office,  its  effect  may  have  been  deeply  imbedded  in  the 
soul,  and  yet  the  poem  as  such  may  have  absolutely 
disappeared  from  the  memory.  As  we  read  a  new 
book  we  mark  the  paragraphs  that  please  us  most,  or 
that  arrest  our  thought.  After  an  interval  of  years 
we  scan  these  marked  paragraphs,  but  without  any 
internal  proof  that  we  have  ever  read  them;  but  a 
closer  scrutiny  shows  us  the  genesis  of  certain  opin- 
ions or  emotions  which  these  forgotten  paragraphs 
had  produced.    In  consideration  of  such  facts,  what 


EQUITY    IN    EXAMINATIONS  207 

possible  inquest  after  knowledge  can  reveal  these 
mysteries  of  spiritual  adornment  and  growth?  We 
cannot  safely  infer  culture  from  knowledge,  nor  can 
we  infer  its  absence  from  the  absence  of  knowledge. 
Into  these  deep  waters  we  throw  the  lead  in  vain,  so 
far  as  the  discovery  of  bottom  facts  is  concerned. 

In  this  connection  I  commend  the  spirit  of  the  fol- 
lowing quotation: 

"In  accordance  with  the  same  principles,  all  knowl- 
edge, however  imposing  in  appearance,  is  but  superfi- 
cial knowledge,  if  it  be  merely  the  mind's  furniture^ 
not  the  mind's  nutriment.  It  must  be  transmuted 
into  mind,  as  food  is  into  blood,  to  become  wisdom 
and  power.  There  is  many  a  human  parrot  and  mem- 
ory monger  who  has  read  and  who  recollects  more 
history  than  Webster,  but  in  Webster  history  has 
become  judgment,  foresight,  executive  force,  mind. 
That  seemingly  instinc1:ive  sagacity,  by  which  an  able 
man  does  exactly  the  right  thing  at  the  right  moment, 
is  nothing  but  a  collection  of  facts  thus  assimilated 
into  thought.  This  power  of  instantaneous  action 
without  reflection  is  the  only  thing  which  saves  men 
in  great  emergencies ;  but  far  from  being  independent 
of  knowledge  and  experience,  it  is  their  noblest  re- 
8ult."* 

♦Whipple,  "Literature  and  Life,"  pp.  193-'4. 


208  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

"At  the  University  of  Cambridge  he  (Wordsworth) 
appears  to  have  read  the  classics  with  the  divining  eye 
and  assimilating  mind  of  a  poet,  and  if  he  did  not 
attain  the  first  position  as  a  classical  scholar,  he  cer- 
tainly drank  in  beyond  all  his  fellows  the  spirit  of  the 
great  writers  of  Greece  and  Rome."* 

"  Whether  men  sow  or  reap  the  fields. 
Divine  monition  Nature  yields, 
That  not  by  bread  alone  we  live. 
As  what  a  hand  of  flesh  can  give — 
That  every  day  should  leave  some  part 
Free  for  a  Sabbath  of  the  heart."t 

Throughout  this  whole  group  of  studies  I  would 
place  supreme  stress  on  the  other  condition  mentioned 
by  Dr.  Corson,  "  sympathetic  assimilation  on  the  part 
of  the  teacher."  The  vital  act  of  teaching  is  best 
described  as  induction,  the  taking  on  of  spiritual  and 
scholarly  qualities  from  near  presence  to  a  man  richly 
endowed  with  spiritual  and  scholarly  qualities. 

But  another  aspect  of  the  examination  question 
now  presents  itself.  What  disposition  is  to  be  made 
of  the  papers  which  students  have  written  under  such 
stress,  and  on  which  their  fate  is  supposed  to  hang? 
Students  look  upon  an  examination  as  a  very  serious 

*lUd.,  p.  258. 
t  Wordsworth. 


EQUITY   IN   EXAMINATIONS  209 

thing;  they  have  a  feeling  that  it  marks  a  crisis  ia 
their  history;  and  they  put  into  it  the  best  that  is  in 
them  of  heart,  mind  and  soul.  I  think  it  is  a  pity 
■that  all  examiners  do  not  enter  into  full  sympathy 
with  their  students  in  a  matter  which  is  so  full  of 
seriousness.  The  paper  of  each  student  should  be 
read  as  patiently  and  as  carefully  as  though  he  were 
the  only  member  of  the  class;  and  in  marking  the 
value  of  an  answer  the  examiner  should  be  guided  by 
the  very  spirit  of  judicial  fairness.  Another  thing  is 
so  important  that  it  should  be  regarded  as  a  first  prin- 
ciple in  estimating  the  value  of  a  paper:  nothing 
which  is  outside  the  paper  should  influence  the  ex- 
aminer in  forming  his  estimate  of  it.  I  have  lately 
seen  the  following  rule  given  for  criticising  a  book: 
"Do  not  go  behind  the  book.  Your  business  is  with 
the  book,  the  whole  book,  and  nothing  but  the  book." 
And  so  I  would  say:  Do  not  go  behind  the  paper. 
Your  business  is  with  the  paper,  the  whole  paper,  and 
nothing  but  the  paper.  This  means  that  you  are  not 
to  mark  a  paper  from  any  thought  of  what  the  pupil 
has  done  or  has  not  done  in  the  past,  nor  of  what  he 
should  do  or  should  not  do  in  the  future,  but  solely 
from  the  standpoint  of  intrinsic  merit. 

Adhering  strictly  to  this  principle,  it  ought  not  to 
14 


210  THE    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS 

he  very  difficult  to  reacli  a  correct  judgment  as  to  the 
deserts  of  the  paper.  If  it  gives  evidence  that  the 
pupil  has  made  a  good  use  of  his  opportunities  and 
has  gained  a  reasonable  mastery  of  his  subject  he 
should  be  marked  "passed."  If  the  paper  makes  it 
clear  that  the  pupiFs  knowledge  of  the  subject  is 
merely  defective  in  some  special  parts,  lie  should  be 
"conditioned/'  and  the  defective  parts  should  be 
clearly  indicated  by  the  instructor.  If  the  paper  is 
radically  poor,  indicating  an  ignorance  or  a  very  poor 
knowledge  of  the  subject,  the  pupil  should  be  marked 
"not  passed,"  and  should  be  required  to  pursue  the 
study  a  second  time. 

"A  condition"  should  not  be  imposed  on  a  student 
either  as  a  punishment  for  some  past  irregularity  or 
as  a  stimulus  to  future  diligence.  The  paper  must  be 
marked  simply  on  its  merits,  and  a  "condition"  must 
not  be  used  as  a  weapon  of  discipline.  I  wonder  if  all 
have  reflected  on  the  demoralizing  effects  of  these 
"conditions."  They  not  only  hang  over  the  student 
as  an  impending  calamity,  but  they  rob  every  instruc- 
tor of  a  part  of  the  student's  time  that  is  his  just  due. 
"Conditions"  must  be  removed,  and  in  order  to  re- 
move them  they  must  have  time  that  would  other- 
wise be  given  to  other  subjects.    By  an  unwise  resort 


EQUITY    IN    EXAMINATIONS  211 

to  '^conditions"  an  instructor  may  ^^hold  up"  an  entire 
school  bj  making  every  other  instructor  pay  tribute 
to  his  exactions.  In  respect  of  its  effect  on  a  school, 
a  ^'condition"  is  much  more  mischievous  than  a  "not 
passed."  Anything  in  school  administration  is  mis- 
chievous that  allo\\^s  one  instructor  to  invade  the 
rights  of  other  instructors.  I  once  knew  a  teacher 
who  played  havoc  throughout  his  school  by  his  merci- 
less impositions  and  exactions  on  the  time  of  students. 
He  was  the  prince  of  task-masters,  his  subject  yielded 
readily  to  drill,  and  his  pupils  were  in  such  terror  of 
his  rebukes  that  they  virtually  gave  him  the  monopoly 
of  their  time  at  the  expense  of  other  coordinate  de- 
partments of  the  university. 

It  happened  in  an  important  western  school,  a  few 
years  ago,  that  some  sixty  per  cent  of  the  students  in 
a  certain  class  failed  to  pass  their  term's  examination, 
and  this  fact  was  advertised  as  a  proof  of  the  remark- 
able thoroughness  of  the  instruction.  What  a  reflec- 
tion on  this  man's  skill  as  an  instructor,  or  upon  his 
wisdom  as  an  examiner,  that  only  four  pupils  in  ten 
could  pass  his  own  test  on  his  own  work!  Under  or- 
dinary circumstances  it  is  proof  of  unskillful  instruc- 
tion or  of  unwise  examination  to  impose  a  large  num- 
ber of  "conditions"  and  "not  passed."    In  very  large 


212  THE   EDUCATION    OF   TEACHERS 

classes,  it  may  "be  said,  individual  instruction  becomes 
impossible,  and  many  failures  are  the  consequence; 
but  evidently  these  pupils  lack  opportunity  through 
no  fault  of  their  own;  either  their  progress  should  be 
slower  in  order  that  it  may  be  surer,  or  the  severity 
of  the  examination  should  be  duly  moderated.  A 
large  per  cent  of  failures  in  examination  is  proof  posi- 
tive of  poor  work  at  some  point  on  the  part  of  the 
instructor.  An  evident  exception  to  this  rule  is  the 
case  where  an  instructor  restricts  pupils,  say  in  Latin, 
who  have  been  taught  their  grammar  with  different 
degrees  of  thoroughness. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  extreme  sensitiveness  of  stu- 
dents to  the  good  opinion  of  their  instructors  and 
classmates,  and  I  would  have  this  feeling  most  sa- 
credly guarded.  Any  unnecessary  publicity  given  to 
a  student's  misfortunes  is  almost  a  crime.  If  we  could 
only  put  ourselves  in  the  place  of  our  students  and 
guai'd  their  interests  as  discreetly  as  we  would  have 
our  own  guarded,  we  would  be  doing  no  more  than 
simple  charity  requires  of  us. 


APPENDIX 


BACCALAUREATE   ADDRESSES 


THE  UNIVERSAL  YOCATIOK 


THE  UNIYEESAL  VOCATION 

In  the  way  of  concrete  Christianity,  and  as  defining 
in  few  words  the  whole  duty  of  man  to  his  fellows, 
nothing  seems  to  me  more  admirable  than  these  words 
of  Paul :  ' '  And  let  us  not  be  weary  in  well  doing : 
for  in  due  season  we  shall  reap,  if  we  faint  not.  As 
we  have  therefore  opportunity^  let  us  do  good  to  all 
men^  especially  unto  them  who  are  of  the  household 
of  faith." 

I  think  the  world  has  grown  tired  of  theology,  that 
is,  of  the  abstract  science  of  righteousness;  but  it 
never  tires  of  religion,  that  is,  of  '  *  that  which  binds 
and  holds  us  to  the  practice  of  righteousness."*  Men 
will  return  with  perennial  joy  to  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  while  they  will  not  listen  with  patience  to  dry 
statements  of  theologies  and  creeds.  Is  the  church 
losing  power  over  intelligent  men?  Yes,  whenever 
the  preacher  makes  the  theory  of  religion  the  warp 
and  woof  of  his  sermon,  but  never  when  the  Bible  is 
used  to  enforce  the  practice  of  righteousness  and  to 

*  Matthew  Arnold 


216  APPENDIX 

inspire  men  with  the  nobility  of  right  conduct.  All 
the  great  preachers  of  to-day  are  great  because  they 
offer  meat  and  drink  to  the  hungry  and  thirsty  souls 
of  men.  In  too  many  instances,  sincere  men  and 
women  go  to  their  preacher  for  bread,  and  they  are 
given  a  stone ;  they  are  offered  the  dry  husks  of  the- 
ology when  the  thing  they  want  is  practical  help  to- 
wards the  conduct  of  life.  How  shall  we  live  in 
order  that  we  may  die  with  composure?  How  shall 
we  bear  up  under  the  crushing  burdens  of  misfortune 
and  sorrow?  What  shall  be  our  attitude  towards 
those  who  despitefully  use  us?  How  shall  we  add  to 
human  happiness  and  mitigate  human  sorrow?  Such 
questions  disturb  every  human  soul,  and  men  have  an 
instinctive  feeling  that  they  are  to  be  answered  out 
of  the  Bible  through  its  authorized  interpreters. 

Beneficence,  or  the  doing  of  good,  is  the  universal 
vocation  to  which  all  men  are  called.  As  the  years 
multiply  I  have  the  ever  growing  conviction  that  the 
real  interpretation  of  life  is  to  be  found  only  in  a 
steadfast  devotion  to  the  doing  of  good ;  that  in  the 
intent  of  our  Creator  our  one  mission  on  this  earth  is 
to  renew  its  face  physically  and  morally ;  to  reconvert 
it  into  a  paradise  for  human  habitation  and  delight ; 
and  to  restore  to  man  the  lost  image  in  which  he  was 


THE    UNIVERSAL    VOCATION  217 

created.  All  other  vocations — all  trades,  employ- 
ments, professions — should  be  held  strictly  subordi- 
nate to  this  supreme  vocation  of  beneficence.  "Why 
am  I  a  scholar,  a  preacher,  a  lawyer,  a  poet,  a  farmer, 
a  teacher,  a  tailor,  a  cooper,  or  a  merchant?  There 
is  but  one  reply  to  each  and  all  of  these  queries. 
' '  Because  I  see  in  these  several  vocations  a  fair  oppor- 
tunity to  do  good,  to  serve  my  generation,  and  to  ben- 
efit the  world."  Contrariwise,  why  am  I  to  shun 
certain  other  vocations  to  which  I  see  many  of  my 
fellow  beings  devoting  themselves?  Because  the  di- 
rect and  the  indirect  tendencies  of  such  vocations  are 
to  produce  or  to  perpetuate  evil,  to  make  men  worse 
and  to  carry  the  world  farther  and  farther  from  its 
ideal  state.  None  of  these  questions  can  be  answered 
from  a  consideration  of  wealth,  reputation,  or  even 
personal  happiness.  We  are  to  '  *  seek  peace  and 
ensue  it,"  even  though  we  are  sure  to  incur  stripes, 
reproaches,  poverty  and  shame ;  and  we  are  to  avoid 
evil  pursuits,  even  though  they  insure  wealth,  honor 
and  reputation. 

This  principle  places  us  on  high  vantage  ground 
from  which  to  survey  human  occupations  and  to  select 
the  one  which  shall  be  our  life  vocation.  Two  things 
are  required  in  order  to  make  a  wise  selection  of  a 


218  APPENDIX 

vocation :  (1)  To  set  aside  at  once  those  whose  nature 
and  aims  are  evil;  and  (2)  then  out  of  those  which 
are  beneficent  to  select  the  one  most  in  keeping  with 
our  tastes  and  abilities. 

It  is  not  a  difficult  thing  to  distinguish  and  set  aside 
the  vocations  that  are  evil.  On  this  point  the  consen- 
sus of  human  opinion  is  unanimous.  This  classifica- 
tion is  as  old  as  history  itself,  and  has  come  down  to 
us  as  an  inheritance.  For  example,  no  one,  not  even 
a  dramseller  himself,  will  assert  that  dramselling  is  a 
beneficent  business.  That  question  is  not  worth  debat- 
ing. It  has  been  settled  for  all  time  to  come.  Whether 
farming  is  a  beneficent  occupation  is  not  a  debatable 
question.  That  too  has  been  settled.  There  are  not 
two  sides  to  the  questions. 

However,  this  circumstance  is  to  be  noted :  a  bene- 
ficent vocation  may  be  maleficently  administered,  as 
when  a  farmer  vends  unwholesome  food,  or  a  states- 
man oppresses  his  people,  or  a  preacher  teaches  error, 
or  a  writer  composes  a  bad  book.  The  evil  is  not  in 
the  vocation,  but  in  the  administration  of  it.  On  the 
other  hand,  no  gift  in  administration  can  purge  a  mal- 
eficent vocation  of  its  evil.  Theft  cannot  be  converted 
into  a  virtue ;  a  thief  is  a  public  enemy,  and  thieving 
is  an  evil ;  there  is  no  good  in  it,  and  no  good  can 


THE    UNIVERSAL    VOCATION  219 

come  out  of  it.  And  still  another  thing  is  to  be 
noted:  the  more  respectability  we  throw  about  an 
evil  vocation  the  more  dangerous  it  becomes ;  the  more 
attractive  we  make  it  the  larger  becomes  the  number 
of  its  victims. 

When  we  come  to  select  one  out  of  the  many  bene- 
ficent vocations  we  fall  upon  grave  difficulties.  Yery 
often  the  selection  is  made  on  false  principles,  especi- 
ally in  the  case  of  the  professions.  Long  before  the 
boy's  capabilities  and  tastes  have  been  brought  to  the 
light  by  training  and  maturity,  the  fond  mother  has 
predestined  him  for  the  pulpit  or  the  bar ;  and  so  we 
witness  the  sad  fact  of  misfits  and  maladjustments — 
the  heaven-born  preacher  at  the  plow  and  the  mis- 
placed plowman  in  the  pulpit.  In  respect  of  the  pro- 
fessions, I  suppose  the  good  rule  is  this :  Defer  the 
selection  of  a  profession  until  the  period  of  general 
training  is  over  in  order  that  the  choice  may  be  based 
on  known  fitness  and  well  developed  tastes.  Good 
preparation  being  assumed,  one  does  best  who  works 
in  the  line  of  his  predilections,  while  to  work  against 
the  grain  is  to  compromise  one's  success  from  the  very 
start.  A  good  high  school  education  seems  to  me  the 
minimum  requisite  for  making  a  wise  choice  of  a  vo- 
cation.   So  far  as  possible,  duty  and  inclination  should 


APPENDIX 

lie  in  the  same  direction.  One's  power  for  doing  good 
is  thus  doubled.  It  is  a  sad  check  to  one's  usefulness 
to  do  work  which  is  a  constant  cross  to  one's  inclina- 
tions. It  is  only  by  this  concert  of  will  and  pleasure 
that  we  can  do  with  our  might  what  our  hands  find  to 
do.  * '  If  we  read  without  inclination,  half  the  mind 
is  employed  in  fixing  the  attention,  so  there  is  but  one- 
half  to  be  employed  on  what  we  read."*  I  allow 
that  sometimes,  at  the  very  beginning,  we  must  con- 
strain ourselves  to  reconcile  duty  with  inclination,  but 
habit  soon  comes  to  the  rescue,  and  what  we  learn 
to  do  easily  and  successfully  we  come  to  do  with 
pleasure.  The  important  thing  is  to  put  heart  and 
soul  into  whatever  we  do,  whether  it  be  making  a 
horseshoe,  plowing  a  furrow,  preaching  a  sermon 
teaching  a  lesson,  or  writing  a  book.  We  should  im- 
part a  moral  quality  to  everything  that  we  fashion 
with  hand  or  brain.  Whatever  we  build  we  should 
build  to  last ;  and  if  it  be  our  privilege  to  make  or 
mould  ' '  a  thing  of  beauty, ' '  it  should  be  of  such 
temper  and  virtue  as  to  be  "a  joy  forever. ' '  Every 
sham  is  immorality,  and  the  persistent  maker  of  shams 
should  be  regarded  and  treated  as  a  criminal.  It  is 
morality  that  gives  coherence  to  human  society ;  and 

*  Samuel  .Tohir^r^n. 


THE   UNIVERSAL   VOCATION  221 

in  the  last  analysis  it  is  morality  that  keeps  a  vessel 
from  foundering  and  a  house  from  falling.  James 
Carlyle  was  a  stone  mason  who  put  his  religion  into 
every  wall  that  he  built,  and  the  great  endowment 
that  he  left  to  his  illustrious  son  was  an  instinctive 
and  uncompromising  hatred  of  shams  in  all  their 
myriad  forms.  Bums,  another  Scotchman,  was  the 
very  scourge  of  pretense,  fraud  and  sham,  particularly 
in  their  most  odious  form,  hypocrisy,  and  so  he  wrote : 

**  God  knows  I*m  no  the  thing  I  should  be, 
Nor  am  I  even  the  thing  I  could  be, 
But  twenty  times  I  rather  would  be 

An  atheist  clean, 
Than  under  gospel  colors  hid  be, 
Just  for  a  screen." 

When  we  seriously  reflect  on  the  prevalence  of  in- 
sincerity and  fraud,  and  think  how  thoroughly  society 
is  honeycombed  with  deception  and  cheat,  we  for  a 
moment  grow  pessimistic  and  sick  at  heart ;  but  when 
we  take  a  broader  view  and  study  the  course  of  human 
events  as  they  reflect  the  morality  of  the  times,  we  dis- 
cover that  through  all  this  misery  and  corruption  there 
is  a  power  working  for  righteousness,  that  the  tone  of 
public  morals  is  steadily  rising,  that  there  is  a  higher  and 
higher  standard  of  conduct,  and  that  frauds  and  shams 


222  APPENDIX 

are  growing  more  and  more  odious  as  the  race  advances 
in  experience.  I  pity  the  man  who  is  not  an  optimist, 
who  believes  that  the  world  is  predestined  to  a  growing 
corruption,  that  society  is  controlled  by  knaves  and 
scoundrels,  and  that  some  day  the  powers  of  darkness 
are  to  hold  high  carnival  over  the  final  discomfiture  of 
the  true  and  the  good.  How  can  a  soldier  fight  when 
he  knows  that  defeat  is  already  inevitable?  How  can 
a  man  raise  his  finger  to  do  good  when  he  knows  that 
all  the  good  that  all  men  can  do  will  be  swallowed  up 
of  evil?  I  pray  that  you  may  be  delivered  from  this 
dreary  and  joyless  creed  of  despair.  Bad  as  it  is,  look 
hopefully  on  the  world  and  let  its  evident  wickedness 
be  but  a  stimulus  to  your  devotion  to  well  doing. 
Have  faith  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  righteousness, 
and  consecrate  all  your  powers  to  the  betterment  of 
human  society.  A  cheerful  optimism  will  multiply 
all  your  powers  for  doing  good  by  ten.  Listen  to  no 
man  who  presumes  to  preach  the  gospel  of  despair. 
Every  benevolent  and  beneficent  man  may  feel  assured 
that  he  is  an  alliance  with  the  everlasting  powers  of 
righteousness,  that  in  his  work,  however  humble,  he 
is  supported  by  the  invincible  agents  of  Truth. 

Now,  in  further  illustration  of  my  theme,  I  will 


THE   UNIVERSAL   VOCATION 

mention  some  modes  in  which  one  may  exercise  the 
vocation  of  beneficence : 

There  is  untold  and  resistless  power  in  a  good  life, 
in  a  life  exemplifying  day  by  day  one's  fidelity  to 
duty,  one's  loyalty  to  truth,  one's  devotion  to  right- 
eous conduct  and  to  the  unostentatious  doing  of  good. 
To  be  a  loyal  citizen,  a  helpful  neighbor,  a  true  friend, 
an  affectionate  son  or  daughter — to  be  thus  dutiful  in 
a  quiet  and  beautiful  way,  is  to  lead  a  life  pleasing  to 
God  and  helpful  to  men.  Such  a  life  is  an  epistle 
known  and  read  of  all  men,  and  all  the  more  persua- 
sive because  it  issues  no  commands  and  excites  no 
comparisons  and  oppositions.  Men  generally  rebel 
against  formal  attempts  to  make  them  better.  A  pro- 
fessional reformer  virtually  assumes  that  he  is  superior 
to  other  men,  and  this  assumption  is  usually  irritating 
and  offensive ;  but  a  man  who  in  a  simple  and  unas- 
suming way  leads  an  industrious,  frugal  and  temperate 
life,  who  fears  God  and  keeps  His  commandments,  is 
an  irresistible  power  for  good  and  an  incomparable 
preacher  of  righteousness.  There  is  a  perennial  charm 
in  a  life  of  such  simplicity  and  uprightness,  and  I  am 
convinced  that  the  real  salt  and  savor  of  society  is  to 
be  found  in  lives  of  this  unassuming  type,  in  lives 
such  as  the  poet  pictures : 


224  APPENDIX 

"  Far  from  the  madding  crowd's  ignoble  strife, 
Their  sober  wishes  never  learned  to  stray; 
Along  the  cool  sequestered  vale  of  life 
They  kept  the  noiseless  tenor  of  their  way." 

The  center  and  source  of  a  people's  moral  strength 
is  the  home.  It  is  in  the  serene  quiet  of  the  home  life 
that  are  organized  the  forces  that  lift  society  upwards 
in  the  way  of  righteousness  and  peace.  If  the  home 
is  the  scene  of  peace  and  joy  and  holy  living,  the 
young  have  the  best  possible  endowment  for  serving 
their  generation  effectively.  It  is  in  private,  not 
public,  life  that  the  saving  virtues  are  nurtured.  It 
is  under  the  shelter  of  the  rooftree  and  around  the 
family  fireside  that  are  formed  the  patriot  and  the 
Christian  soldier.  It  is  sometimes  necessary  to  fight, 
as  Aristotle  declares,  but  all  to  the  end  that  we  may 
have  peace.  The  ideal  state  to  which  Christianity  is 
striving  is  that  of  peace  and  good  will  to  men.  * '  The 
fruits  of  righteousness  are  sown  in  peace  of  them  that 
make  peace. " 

What  I  have  just  said  amounts  in  substance  to  this : 
the  prime  condition  of  doing  good  in  the  world  is  to 
have  a  nature  surcharged  with  good  impulses,  noble 
aspirations  and  benevolent  purposes.  If  you  are  to 
do  good  you  must  be  good;    if  you  are  to  promote 


THE   UNIVERSAL   VOCATION  226 

peace  and  good  will  among  men  you  must  yourself 
have  a  peaceable  spirit  and  a  will  to  do  good  to  others. 
Mean  men  may  do  a  good  deed  from  some  constraint, 
as  an  unjust  judge  may  finally  listen  to  a  widow's  plea 
out  of  sheer  importunity ;  but  such  service  is  a  hollow 
mockery,  offensive  to  God  and  man.  It  is  out  of  the 
abundance  of  the  heart  that  the  mouth  should  speak. 
Good  men  will  seek  occasion  to  do  good ;  they  will 
not  wait  for  some  form  of  compulsion.  A  benevolent 
nature  will  express  itself  in  good  deeds,  just  as  a 
merry  heart  makes  a  glad  countenance.  * '  What  a 
delicious  fortune  is  it  to  him  whose  strongest  appetite 
is  doing  good,  to  have  every  day  the  opportunity  and 
the  power  of  satisfying  it."*  Education,  as  I  am 
coming  more  and  more  to  understand  it,  consists 
mainly  in  assisting  young  people  to  be  or  become 
something  as  the  condition  of  doing  something.  The 
education  that  does  not  strike  deep  enough  to  affect 
the  personality  beneficently  and  permanently  is  of 
little  worth. 

Another  mode  in  which  you  may  do  good  to  men 
as  you  have  opportunity  is  to  extend  their  intellectual 
horizon  and  give  them  clearer  conceptions  of  truth. 
Narrowness  makes  us  selfish,  intolerant  and  unchar- 

♦  Fielding. 
15 


226  APPENDIX 

itable.  We  should  all  pray  for  breadth,  for  some  one 
to  take  us  to  the  mountains  whence  we  may  see  the 
world's  greatness  and  our  own  littleness,  to  the  end 
that  we  may  be  modest  and  at  the  same  time  cosmo- 
politan. All  men  should  be  travelers,  travelers  in 
fact,  or,  through  books,  travelers  by  proxy;  so  that 
while  denizens  of  the  little  spot  we  call  our  home,  we 
may  become  citizens  of  the  world.  How  many  mean 
prejudices  slink  away  from  us  as  we  come  into  wider 
fellowship  with  our  own  kind !  As  we  mingle  with 
people  of  other  nationalities  we  discover  that  be- 
tween them  and  us  there  are  many  more  resemblances 
than  differences.  Doubtless  it  was  Paul's  experience 
as  a  traveler  that  had  taught  him  that  *  *  God  hath 
made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men  for  to  dwell  on 
all  the  face  of  the  earth."  Not  until  he  had  parted 
with  his  Jewish  exclusiveness  could  he  have  become 
the  apostle  to  the  Gentiles.  His  sojourn  in  Arabia 
and  his  experience  at  Antioch  were  for  Paul  a  liberal 
education,  and  with  this  endowment  he  became  the 
world's  preacher. 

Socrates  held  that  knowledge  and  virtue  are  syn- 
onymous, or,  rather,  that  clear  intellectual  vision  is  an 
unfailing  guide  to  good  conduct.  On  this  hypothesis 
he  devoted  himself  to  dialectic,  that  is^  to  an  unloos- 


THE    UNIVERSAL    VOCATION  227 

ening  or  analysis  of  the  current  ethical  maxims  and 
theories  of  his  day  in  order  to  divest  them  of  their 
sophistries  and  thence  to  discover  the  one  kernel  of 
grain  hidden  in  the  bushel  of  chaff.  This  theory  is 
imperfect  because  it  does  not  take  into  account  habit 
and  emotion ;  but  there  is  so  large  an  element  of  help- 
fulness in  it  that  the  clear  discernment  of  truth  must 
be  counted  as  a  fundamental  condition  of  good  con- 
duct. Knowing  that  arsenic  is  a  poison,  we  do  not 
tamper  with  it ;  knowing  that  electricity  kills,  we  do 
not  lay  hold  of  live  wires ;  but  knowing  that  intem- 
perance leads  to  poverty  and  shame,  all  men  are  not 
temperate;  knowing  that  untruthfulness  saps  honor 
and  integrity,  all  men  are  not  truthful.  In  the  first 
cases  there  is  no  element  of  uncertainty  and  no  seduc- 
tion of  habit,  and  so  obedience  is  easy;  but  in  the 
second  cases  there  are  exceptions  to  a  general  rule, 
and  some  men  are  willing  to  take  their  chances  on 
these  exceptions.  Still,  if  men  have  been  the  subjects 
of  moral  discipline,  they  will  shun  the  paths  of  danger 
when  they  have  been  clearly  discerned  by  the  intellect. 
Socrates  no  doubt  assumed  the  fact  of  moral  discipline, 
and  with  this  postulate  we  may  certainly  build  on  the 
divine  principle  enunciated  by  John,  that  '  *  the  truth 
shall  make  us  free."     It  is  the  business  of  the  schools 


228  APPENDIX 

not  only  to  bring  pupils  face  to  face  with  truth,  but  to 
make  the  pursuit  of  truth  one  of  the  sweetest  joys  of 
life.  By  direct  teaching,  and  perhaps  even  more  by 
the  silent  and  potent  influences  of  example,  you  may 
fulfill  one  of  your  highest  duties  to  man  by  clear  ex- 
positions of  truth,  and  by  making  the  pursuit  of  truth 
a  lovable  vocation.  "It  is  a  pleasure  to  stand  upon 
the  shore  and  to  see  ships  tossed  by  the  sea ;  a  pleasure 
to  stand  in  the  window  of  a  castle,  and  to  see  a  battle, 
and  the  adventures  thereof  below ;  but  no  pleasure  is 
comparable  to  the  standing  on  the  vantage  ground  of 
truth  (a  hill  not  to  be  commanded,  and  where  the  air 
is  always  clear  and  serene)  and  to  see  the  errors,  and 
wanderings,  and  mists,  and  tempests,  in  the  vale 
below :  so  always,  that  this  prospect  be  with  pity,  and 
not  with  swelling  or  pride.  Certainly  it  is  heaven 
upon  earth  to  have  a  man's  mind  move  in  charity,  rest 
in  providence,  and  turn  upon  the  poles  of  truth."* 

I  think  it  is  not  possible  to  overestimate  the  influ- 
ence of  good  books  and  the  reading  habit  on  the  hap- 
piness and  well-being  of  mankind.  In  this  age  of 
universal  reading,  men  make  books  their  companions, 
guides  and  teachers.  The  time  once  was  when  opin- 
ion, public  and  individual,  was  moulded  and  controlled 

♦Bacon,  Of  Truth. 


THE    UNIVERSAL   VOCATION  229 

by  the  orator  and  the  preacher ;  but  in  these  later  days 
the  pulpit  and  the  rostrum  have  been  largely  super- 
seded by  the  book,  aud  the  occupation  of  our  leisure 
is  reading,  rather  than  listening.  The  old  and  true 
saying  that  "a  man  is  known  by  the  company  he 
keeps,"  should  now  read,  *'aman  is  known  by  the 
books  he  reads."  It  is  as  certain  as  anything  can 
be  in  the  moral  world  that  a  young  man  who  is  an 
ardent  lover  of  good  books  is  in  very  little  danger  of 
moral  corruption.  This  is  so  for  two  reasons :  a  good 
book  is  not  only  wholesome  and  stimulating  moral 
aliment,  but  the  reading  habit  is  a  precious  preoccupa- 
tion, and  in  moral  training  wise  preoccupation  is  more 
than  half  the  battle.  These  simple  propositions  are 
unmistakably  true :  The  pursuit  of  happiness  is  a 
need  of  our  nature ;  men  will  seek  happiness  in  some 
form;  if  they  cannot  find  it  in  the  exercise  of  the 
higher  emotions,  they  will  seek  it  in  the  exercise  of 
the  lower ;  and  if  the  mind  is  preoccupied  with  the 
higher  pleasures  it  will  be  closed  to  the  lower. 
* '  Students  do  not  do  enough  for  themselves,  in  these 
days  of  vast  educational  machinery.  They  for  the 
most  part  confine  themselves  to  the  prescribed  work 
of  the  schools.  They  are,  in  fact,  obliged  to  do  this, 
in  order  to  keep  up  with  the  heterogeneous  class  work 


230  APPENDIX 

imposed  on  them,  and  to  prepare  for  examinations. 
They  have  so  much  to  gobble  up  that,  to  turn  aside  to 
read,  in  a  genial,  sympathetic  way,  a  great  inspiring 
author,  as  they  should  be  encouraged  and  allowed  an 
opportunity  to  do,  is  quite  impossible.  The  school 
bill  of  fare,  with  moral  dyspepsia  in  its  wake,  must 
be  gone  through  with,  mat  coelura.'^''^ 

Next  in  potency  to  the  Scriptures  as  an  agent  for 
awakening  and  nourishing  the  higher  life  of  the  soul, 
is  genuine  poetry ;  and  to  be  wisely  addicted  to  good 
poetry  is  to  live  in  a  tonic  moral  atmosphere  and  to 
put  on  the  form  of  a  higher  spiritual  personality. 
The  true  poet  is  a  creator,  the  creator  of  a  purer 
world,  peopled  by  purified  spirits,  and  purifying  all 
who  take  up  their  abode  in  it.  ''The  immoral  and 
universal  paths  of  our  race  are  to  be  read  and  reread 
till  their  music  and  their  spirit  are  a  part  of  our 
nature ;  they  are  to  be  thought  over  and  digested  till 
we  live  in  the  world  they  created  for  us ;  they  are  to 
be  read  devoutly,  as  devout  men  read  their  Bible 
and  fortify  their  hearts  with  psalms.  For  as  the  old 
Hebrew  singer  heard  the  heavens  declare  the  glory  of 
their  Maker,  and  the  firmament  showing  his  handi- 
work, so  in  the  long  roll  of  poetry  we  see  transfigured 

♦Hiram  Corson. 


THE    UNIVERSAL    VOCATION  231 

the  strength  and  beauty  of  humanity,  the  joys  and 
sorrows,  the  dignity  and  struggle,  the  long  life-history 
of  our  common  kind."* 

"Next  to  good  poetry  as  a  transforming  power  is 
good  fiction.  While  poetry  constructs  for  man  an 
ideal  world  and  peoples  it  with  ideal  characters,  fic- 
tion has  for  its  field  the  analysis  and  reconstruction  of 
the  real  world  inhabited  by  real  men  and  women,  and 
leaves  the  reader  to  construct  an  ideal  world  for  him- 
seK,  to  become  his  own  poet  and  prophet. 

Whether  you  can  make  this  beneficent  use  of  books 
or  not  will  depend  upon  your  own  intellectual  tastes 
and  habits.  It  is  not  enough  that  you  love  to  read ; 
you  should  also  love  books  as  personal  treasures, 
should  love  them  as  you  love  your  friends,  and  with 
the  same  ardor  as  some  men  love  pictures.  But  to 
love  books  you  must  own  them.  If  you  can  associate 
some  personal  sacrifice  with  each  one  of  them,  so 
much  the  better.  To  be  loved  in  the  best  fashion,  a 
book  should  not  only  have  intrinsic  merit,  which  is, 
of  course,  the  principal  thing,  but  it  should  have  some 
special  charms  of  typography,  paper,  and  binding. 
There  are  books  beautiful  and  books  ugly,  books  that 
appeal  to  the  aesthetic  sense  as  works  of  art,  and  books 

*  Frederick  Harrison. 


232  APPENDIX 

that  are  offensive  to  sight  and  touch.  I  would  have 
you  affected  with  a  mild  bibliomania,  to  the  end  that 
you  may  accumulate  a  certain  number  of  book  treasures 
which  you  treat  lovingly  and  guard  jealously.  Books 
are  the  tools  of  your  art,  and  to  know  how  to  use 
them  wisely  and  effectively  is  one  of  the  prime  ele- 
ments of  your  professional  outfit.  By  degrees  you 
should  accumulate  a  library,  not  alone  of  professional 
books,  but  mainly  of  books  that  bespeak  the  tastes  of 
a  general  scholar,  books  of  history,  philosophy  and 
belles-lettres ;  for  in  a  high  and  true  sense  these  too 
are  professional  books,  since  the  teacher  is  or  should 
be  first  of  all  a  scholar,  a  man  enamored  of  the  schol- 
arly vocation.  In  fact  any  pursuit  is  professional  that 
gives  extension  to  a  teacher's  intellectual  vision,  gives 
him  higher  and  truer  views  of  life,  or  gives  tone  and 
poise  to  the  sum  total  of  his  character.  A  good  poem 
may  do  him  a  higher  professional  service  than  a  book 
on  method. 

Without  saying  with  Pope  that  happiness  is  ' '  our 
being's  end  and  aim,"  it  is  certain  that  happiness  is  a 
substantial  good,  a  moral  tonic  needed  by  all  men  as  a 
condition  for  doing  a  high  quality  of  work.  Noble 
work  has  been  done  under  the  stress  of  poverty  and 
sorrow,  but  no  one  will  say  that  these  are  conditions 


THE   UNIVERSAL   VOCATION  233 

that  are  to  be  desired.  At  best  they  are  a  painful 
stimulus  to  action,  but  in  the  end  pain  is  weakening 
and  demoralizing.  Happiness,  on  the  other  hand, 
acting  as  a  gentle  stimulus,  produces  a  constitutional 
condition  that  is  most  favorable  to  human  exertion. 
We  should  pray  for  happiness,  not  for  the  sake  of 
personal  enjoyment,  but  because  it  is  the  state  most 
favorable  for  doing  work  of  the  highest  quality ;  just 
as  we  pray  to  be  delivered  from  unhappiness,  because 
this  is  a  state  unfavorable  to  the  doing  of  good  service. 
Doubtless  sorrow  is  a  discipline  necessary  to  lead  us  on 
toward  the  perfecting  of  our  nature,  but  sorrows  come 
unbidden,  and  we  have  no  warrant  for  bringing  them 
forward  by  express  intent.  Happiuess,  however,  or 
that  state  of  mind  which  results  from  the  free  and 
unimpeded  exercise  of  our  activities,  is  even  more  es- 
sential to  the  normal  life  of  the  soul.  As  it  is  a  state 
dependent  more  or  less  on  conditions  within  our  con- 
trol, we  may  make  it  an  object  of  deliberate  pursuit, 
as  a  good  which  we  may  do  to  all  men. 

The  case  is  still  stronger  when  we  take  children 
into  account.  Men  may  react  against  unhappiness  and 
even  draw  strength  from  it,  but  happiness  is  the  vital 
breath  of  children,  the  very  best,  if  not  the  only, 
moral  stimulus  on  which  they  can  thrive.     In  all  its 


234  APPENDIX 

appointments,  a  schoolroom  for  children  should  inspire 
a  wholesome  sense  of  rest  and  comfort,  and  should 
predispose  its  pupils  to  happiness.  The  teacher  her- 
self should  radiate  an  atmosphere  that  is  kindly,  joyous 
and  sympathetic — voice,  manner  and  dress  all  conspir- 
ing to  create  a  very  paradise  for  childhood.  One 
incomparable  blessing  bestowed  on  education  by  the 
kindergarten  is  the  spirit  of  spontaneity  and  joyous- 
ness  which  it  has  introduced  into  the  primary  school. 
This  I  believe  to  be  one  of  its  supreme  merits. 

"Wherever  you  work,  whether  in  the  narrow  circle 
of  your  school,  or  in  the  wider  field  of  the  world,  I 
would  have  you,  by  your  good  humor,  serenity  of 
spirit  and  kindliness  of  heart,  make  it  one  of  your 
distinct  aims  to  diffuse  about  you  the  wholesome  and 
inspiring  tonic  of  human  happiness.  As  far  as  you 
may  be  able,  take  sunshine  into  darkened  homes,  lift 
the  clouds  from  heavy  hearts  and  give  support  to 
drooping  spirits.  Be  sympathetic,  speak  hopefully, 
treat  gently,  reserving  frowns,  censure  and  hardness 
for  the  rarest  occasions.  As  the  condition  for  doing 
this,  fill  yourself  with  hopefulness,  cheerfulness,  good 
will  and  benevolence,  and  count  these  as  cardinal  vir- 
tues in  a  life  that  is  to  be  devoted  to  the  dissemination 
of  righteousness. 


THE   UNIVERSAL   VOCATION  235 

I  venture  to  call  attention  to  another  principle  which 
I  think  of  vital  importance.  Whoever  feels  obliged  to 
look  for  his  happiness  outside  of  himself,  outside  of 
his  own  resources,  is  in  a  state  of  great  moral  danger. 
If  education  is  to  be  truly  a  beneficence,  it  should 
make  a  man  self-contained,  self -centered,  resourceful, 
a  law  unto  himself,  so  that  when  in  peril  he  may 
rescue  himself,  and  when  alone  he  may  not  be  lonely. 
One  should  learn  to  be  on  good  terms  with  one's  self, 
to  be  one's  own  companion,  and  out  of  one's  own 
resources  to  draw  comfort,  happiness  and  strength. 
What  a  pitiable  condition  to  be  dependent  on  others 
for  our  daily  supplies  of  happiness  and  moral  strength ! 

For  the  end  I  have  in  view  the  one  great  essential 
is  a  well  furnished  mind,  a  memory  that  holds  in  safe 
keeping  and  subject  to  prompt  recall  some  of  the 
masterpieces  of  literature,  religious,  ethical  and  poeti- 
cal. As  specimens  from  sacred  literature  I  mention 
the  following:  The  Beatitudes;  the  Twenty-third, 
the  Ninetieth  and  the  One  Hundred  and  third  Psalms ; 
the  Twelfth  of  Komans,  the  Thirteenth  of  First  Cor- 
inthians, the  Third  of  James.  Then  there  should 
come  such  complete  poems  as  Gray's  Elegy,  Thana- 
topsis,  II  Penseroso^  and  so  on  almost  without  limit. 
One  of  the  shames  of  modem  education  is  the  syste- 


236  APPENDIX 

matic  and  almost  universal  discrediting  of  the  memory. 
It  is  denied  that  the  memory  is  a  storehouse,  but  every 
sane  man  knows  that  it  is.  ' '  We  must  most  of  all 
exercise  and  keep  in  constant  employment  the  memory 
of  children ;  for  that  is,  as  it  were,  the  storehouse  of 
all  learning."*  It  is  asserted  that  ''nothing  should 
be  committed  to  memory  which  has  not  been  imder- 
fitood";  which  is  as  wise  as  to  say  that  ''no  food 
should  be  committed  to  the  stomach  which  has  not 
been  digested."  Not  only  is  education  without  mem- 
ory impossible,  but  the  quality  of  education  is  depend- 
ent on  the  larger  or  smaller  use  that  is  made  of  the 
memory.  At  any  rate,  from  our  present  point  of 
view  a  man,  to  be  well  furnished  for  the  highest  re- 
quirements of  life,  has  need  of  a  mind  that  holds  in 
store  large  and  select  portions  of  the  world's  wisdom. 
I  do  not  know  how  I  could  do  you  a  higher  service 
than  by  inducing  you  to  make  of  your  minds  a  royal 
storehouse  of  the  best  things  uttered  or  written  by  the 
world's  great  teachers,  its  saints,  prophets,  poets  and 
philosophers. 

In  the  next  place  I  would  have  you  do  good  to  men 
by  teaching  them  by  precept  and  example  the  essential 
nobility   and   beauty  of  simplicity   in   character,    in 

•  Plutarch. 


THE   UNIVERSAL   VOCATI 


habits,  in  pleasures,  in  desires,  in  wants,  in  dress — in 
all  things  that  pertain  to  the  conduct  of  life.  In 
religion,  in  government,  in  society,  in  education — in 
every  sphere  of  human  activity  there  is  an  almost 
irresistible  movement  towards  the  artificial,  the  com- 
plex, the  unnecessary.  Rousseau  was  not  far  wrong 
in  saying  that  men  no  longer  know  how  to  be  simple 
in  anything,  and  in  believing  that  the  cure  for  human 
ills  is  to  be  found  in  a  return  to  simplicity,  or  to 
Nature,  as  distinguished  from  art.  To  know  what 
Rousseau  means  by  Nature,  and  so  to  comprehend  his 
theory  of  life,  one  needs  to  go  from  Paris  to  Mont- 
morency, from  shops,  palaces  and  prisons  to  trees, 
lawns  and  brooks ;  from  din  and  bustle  to  solitude  and 
silence.  There  is  a  strong  confirmation  of  this  theory 
in  the  history  of  religion,  where  reforms  have  always 
been  in  the  line  of  simplicity,  away  from  forms  and 
ceremonies,  back  to  a  simple  spiritual  worship.  In 
process  of  time  the  reformed  religions  must  themselves 
reform,  so  irresistible  is  the  tendency  to  find  comfort 
in  mere  mechanism,  and  to  work  out  one's  salvation, 
not  with  fear  and  trembling,  but  by  proxy,  in  a  gen- 
tlemanly way,  without  much  disturbance  to  one's  feel- 
ings or  sense  of  comfort. 

Many  of  our  wants  are  purely  artificial,  the  mere 


238  APPENDIX 

creations  of  fashions  or  fancy,  responding  to  no  real 
demands  of  our  nature,  but  wasting  our  money,  dissi- 
pating our  time,  and  destroying  our  health  as  well  as 
our  happiness.  Simplicity  in  food,  in  dress  and  m 
pleasure  would  add  to  our  health,  our  wealth  and  our 
happiness ;  and  if  the  young  could  be  impressed  with 
the  beauty  and  the  utility  of  simplicity  in  all  the  things 
that  pertain  to  the  conduct  of  life,  they  would  be 
placed  on  higher  vantage  ground  and  insured  against 
many  of  the  so-called  ills  of  existence. 

I  think  most  people  in  a  normal  state  of  mind  and 
heart  have  periodical  longings  to  retreat  to  the  woods 
and  the  mountains,  and  there  to  renew  their  spiritual 
and  physical  strength  in  solitude  and  simplicity  of  life. 
No  life  can  be  great  that  is  not  nurtured  and  matured 
in  solitude,  and  any  life  will  be  dwarfed  and  puny 
that  does  not  sometimes  retire  from  the  heat  and  glare 
of  society,  to  gain  refreshment  from  the  repose  and 
silence  of  nature.  Happy  they  to  whom  such  retreats 
are  open!  The  solitude  of  Craigenputtock  was  in 
perfect  keeping  with  the  genius  and  the  spiritual 
needs  of  Carlyle  during  the  years  that  witnessed  the 
maturing  of  his  powers  and  the  crystalizing  of  his 
theories  of  life.  At  this  supreme  juncture,  life  in 
London,  or  even  in  Edinburgh,  would  have  been  folly, 


THE   UNIVERSAL   VOCATION  239 

if  not  ruin.  Mr.  Carlyle's  latest  biographer,  Macpher- 
son,  speaks  of  "Carlyle's  retirement  to  the  howling 
wilds  of  Craigenputtock ' ' ;  and  Mr.  Fronde  charac- 
terizes the  place  as  ''the  dreariest  spot  in  all  the 
British  dominions. ' '  As  Craigenputtock  appeared  to 
me,  it  is  a  pleasant,  even  a  charming  spot  for  a  man 
of  contemplative  habits  and  simple  tastes,  the  only 
spot  in  Britain  that  I  coveted  as  a  dwelling  place. 

One  phase  of  education  as  a  process  is  growth,  spir- 
itual and  mental.  For  such  growth  reflection  or  rum- 
ination is  necessary,  and  for  this  purpose  retirement 
or  seclusion  is  an  absolute  necessity.  Student  life  can 
not  be  wholesome  if  it  does  not  have  stated  periods 
consecrated  to  reflection  and  contemplation.  Possibly 
the  lack  of  this  opportunity  explains  why  it  is  that 
college  life  contributes  so  little  to  a  student's  real  edu- 
cation. For  the  most  part,  the  mind  is  made  to  work 
at  high  tension,  such  is  the  pressure  of  class  work  and 
examinations,  but  it  is  only  when  the  mind  is  working 
under  a  mild  and  gentle  stimulus,  in  a  state  of  com- 
parative repose,  that  education  proper  can  take  place ; 
so  that  it  is  the  wisest  student  economy  to  arrange  for 
stated  periods  of  retirement  where  the  sole  occupation 
is  rumination.    I  do  not  think  it  a  paradox  to  say  that 


240  APPENDIX 

normal  sleep  is  more  favorable  to  true  educational 
growth  than  the  customary  drill  of  the  class  room. 

I  now  turn  to  another  mode  of  doing  good  which  is 
more  strictly  professional :  the  dissemination  through- 
out your  little  circle  of  influence  of  correct  notions  as 
to  the  nature  and  purposes  of  education.  How  you 
could  do  more  good  in  your  day  and  generation  than 
by  preaching  this  evangel  I  do  not  know,  for  educa- 
tion is  the  architectonic  or  master  art,  the  art  that 
makes  all  others  possible,  that  determines  the  value  of 
individuals  to  the  state,  and  that  also  determines  the 
rank  of  states  in  the  august  procession  of  nations.  I 
do  not  know  which  is  the  more  potent  factor  for  good 
in  a  community,  a  wise  teacher  dispensing  to  his  little 
flock  mental  and  spiritual  food  in  due  quantity  and  of 
due  quality,  or  a  wise  patron  predisposing  the  commu- 
nity to  support  a  school  of  high  quality.  It  is  certain 
that  both  agencies  are  needed,  and  it  should  be  true 
that  every  good  teacher  is  also  a  good  preacher  of  a 
sound  educational  gospel.  In  the  order  of  logic  the 
schoolhouse  should  antedate  the  church,  which  is  the 
actual  historical  order.  The  evangelization  of  the 
world  would  proceed  more  surely  and  more  rapidly  if 
a  sound  educational  gospel  were  to  prepare  the  way 
for  the  Gospel  of  peace  and  good  will  to  man. 


THE   UNIVERSAL   VOCATION  241 

It  will  help  us  to  understand  the  essential  secret  of 
education  if  we  reflect  on  the  fact  that  many  students 
who  have  been  graduated  from  college  are  essentially 
uneducated,  while  there  are  many  men  who  are  edu- 
cated in  the  noble  sense  of  that  term  who  never  fre- 
quented an  academy  or  a  college.  Many  a  boy  has 
abandoned  all  hope  of  an  education  because  he  is  shut 
out  from  the  privileges  of  the  schools,  believing  that 
education  is  dependent  on  the  means  which  they  offer. 
All  young  people  should  know  that  in  this  country  of 
churches,  newspapers  and  books,  every  one  may  be- 
come educated  in  some  true  sense  of  this  term,  and 
that  one  condition  and  prerequisite  is  an  unfaltering 
will,  a  will  that  says  inveniam  vicmi  aut  facicmi. 
Five  minutes'  conversation  with  a  boy,  under  fair 
conditions,  and  pitched  to  the  right  key,  might  pro- 
duce intellectual  conversion  and  wholly  change  the 
current  of  his  life.  In  every  school  there  are  natures 
quickly  responsive  to  appeals  addressed  to  what  is  best 
in  them ;  and  the  beautiful  way  when  once  pointed 
out  will  be  lovingly  followed  to  the  more  beautiful 
end. 

You  should  disabuse  the  minds  of  others,  as  I  hope 
you  have  long  since  disabused  your  own  minds,  of  the 

notion  that  education  is  synonymous  with  the  posses- 
10 


242  APPENDIX 

eion  of  much  knowledge.  Knowledge  to  be  really 
educative  must,  through  a  process  of  assimilation,  be 
built  up  into  that  spiritual  fabric  which  constitutes  the 
human  personality.  Now,  mere  knowledge  may  re- 
main in  the  mind  as  unassimilated  material,  almost  as 
foreign  matter  in  the  spiritual  substance,  and  it  is  as 
illogical  to  infer  education  from  the  mere  possession  of 
knowledge,  as  to  infer  warmth  from  unused  fuel,  or 
bodily  comfort  and  strength  from  food  still  in  store. 

We  come  a  little  nearer  the  secret  of  education 
when  we  call  it  discipline  or  power.  In  a  sense,  but 
in  an  incomplete  sense,  a  man  is  educated  whose  mind 
has  been  disciplined;  but  mere  discipline,  without 
that  substantive  being  which  we  call  character,  that 
chemical  compound  of  intellect,  heart  and  will,  all 
fused  into  one,  and  constituting  the  unit  of  the  human 
personality — such  discipline  is  impotent  for  good,  a 
sword  without  a  patriot's  hand  to  wield  it.  Horses, 
pigs  and  even  fleas  can  be  trained  but  not  educated. 
That  is,  they  can  be  so  disciplined  as  to  execute  tricks 
and  feats  not  in  keeping  with  their  original  nature,  but 
there  is  no  upward  modification  of  character  through 
anytliing  that  affects  intellect  and  emotion ;  and  it  is 
because  they  have  neither  intellect  nor  emotion  that 
they  cannot  be  educated. 


THE   UNIVERSAL   VOCATION  243 

Though  wise  men  from  Plato  to  Colonel  Parker, 
inclusive,  have  attempted  to  define  education,  no  sat- 
isfactory definition  of  it  has  been  framed;  and  we 
may  be  sure  that  when  the  definition  is  concise,  it  is 
practically  worthless.  To  say  that  education  is  devel- 
opment, or  life,  or  perfection,  if  not  nonsense,  is  an 
affirmation  so  utterly  vague  and  rhetorical  as  to  be 
practically  meaningless.  Even  the  very  best  defini- 
tions, like  those  of  Plato,  Spencer  and  Huxley,  are 
hardly  more  significant  than  a  wave  of  the  hand  show- 
ing us  in  what  direction  to  look  for  light.  The  best 
that  can  be  done  is  to  abandon  definition  and  resort  to 
description,  such  description  bearing  on  one  or  all  of 
the  following  points :  (1)  the  end  or  purpose  of  edu- 
cation ;  (2)  its  matter  or  content ;  (3)  its  form ;  and 
(4)  its  processes.  Proceeding  on  this  line  I  offer  the 
following  statements,  no  one  of  which,  nor  all  com- 
bined, amounts  to  a  full  description,  much  less  to  a 
definition : 

Education  is  the  process  of  hringing  a  human  being 
into  likeness  with  the  highest  type  of  his  hind. 

Supposing  that  the  Apollo  Belvidere  typifies  the 
physical  perfection  attainable  by  man,  or  the  perfec- 
tion towards  which  he  is  to  strive ;  that  the  type  of 
pure  intellect  is  to  be  found  in  Aristotle,  and  the  type 


244  APPENDIX 

of  moral  perfection  in  Jesus ;  then  this  statement  be- 
comes useful  in  making  known  the  purpose  or  end  of 
education,  but  it  throws  no  light  on  other  essential 
elements  of  the  problem,  save  by  implic«ition,  on  the 
principle  that  to  know  the  end  is  almost  to  know  the 
way,  and  that  to  have  a  strong  desire  to  reach  this  end 
is  to  find  a  way. 

The  pv/rpose  of  education  is  to  endow  the  mdt/vid- 
ucbl^  through  jprop&r  i/nst/ruct/ion^  with  the  highest 
achievements  of  the  race  in  thi/nki/ng,  feeling  and 
doing. 

Here  we  have  the  end  somewhat  vaguely  stated  as 
a  certain  endowment ;  the  process  as  instruction ;  and 
the  content,  by  fair  implication,  as  knowledge. 

Education  consists  in  the  equable  development  a/nd 
troMivng  of  the  humam  powers  through  proper  in- 
struction. 

This  statement  points  out  that  the  end  and  content 
is  development  and  training;  the  process  is  instruc- 
tion ;  and  the  form  is  symmetry,  harmony,  proportion. 
This  is  the  ancient  Greek  and  the  modem  German 
conception. 

The  purpose  of  education  is  to  generate  within  the 
imImiduaZ  right  feelings  towards  the  trucy  the  beau- 
tifvly  amd  the  good. 


THE  UNIVERSAL  VOCATION         246 

This  is  a  statement  that  the  purpose  is  certain  feel- 
ings or  emotions ;  the  process  is  generation,  develop- 
ment; the  form  is  rightness,  harmony;  and,  by  im- 
plication, the  content  is  certain  knowledge. 

'  *  To  prepare  us  for  complete  living, ' '  says  Herbert 
Spencer,  '  *  is  the  function  which  education  has  to  dis- 
charge." All  that  is  accomplished  by  this  much 
vaunted  definition  is  to  declare  its  end  or  aims,  "com- 
plete living ' ' ;  but  this  concept  is  so  vague,  so  gen- 
eral, so  indefinable,  that  its  use  for  guidance  is  very 
small.  Before  this  definition  can  be  made  available, 
we  must  know  what  is  included  in  '*  complete  living," 
and  it  is  not  at  all  probable  that  any  two  wise  men  out 
of  a  hundred  would  agree  as  to  the  content  of  this 
concept. 

Plato  declares  that  *  *  the  end  of  education  is  to  give 
to  the  body  and  to  the  soul  all  the  beauty  and  all  the 
perfection  of  which  they  are  susceptible."  Beauty 
and  perfection  of  body  and  soul  is  here  the  avowed 
end  of  education.  These  are  wide  concepts,  we  must 
allow,  and  in  consequence,  a  congenial  halo  of  vague- 
ness hangs  over  this  classical  definition ;  but  by  reason 
of  its  analytical  character  it  affords  attachments  to  the 
teacher's  efforts  which  are  wanting  in  Mr.  Spencer's 
statement. 


246.  APPENDIX 

In  these  illustrations  the  thought  I  wish  to  impress 
is  that  in  your  attempts  to  make  known  the  secret  of 
education  you  must  proceed  by  description  rather  than 
by  strict  definition,  and  that  you  must  resort  to  as 
many  statements  as  there  are  phases  to  this  many 
sided  question,  the  most  comprehensiv^e  that  can  oc- 
cupy the  mind  of  man. 

In  all  that  has  preceded  I  have  assumed  that  as  the 
fundamental  condition  for  doing  good  you  must  be 
possessed  in  full  measure  of  the  spirit  of  Christianity 
as  set  forth  in  the  Gospel.  The  complement  and 
crown  of  your  education  must  be  that  spiritual  trans- 
formation and  culture  which  it  is  the  mission  of 
Christianity  to  bestow  on  mankind.  In  the  fullest 
and  best  sense,  you  must  be  inspired  and  possessed  by 
the  missionary  spirit,  that  spirit  which  includes  in  one 
noble  group  of  philanthropists  the  preacher  and  the 
teacher. 


A  THEORY  OF  LIFE 


II 

A  THEOKY  OF  LIFE 

The  prophetic  eye  of  John,  looking  down  the  long 
vista  of  the  coming  centuries,  foresaw  that  the  king- 
doms of  this  world  were  to  become  the  kingdoms  of 
the  Lord  and  of  his  Christ.  In  other  words,  the  moral 
world  was  to  be  reconstructed  or  re-created  through  the 
gospel  of  peace  and  good  will  to  men,  just  as  the  physi- 
cal world  is  now  in  process  of  reconstruction  or  re-crea- 
tion through  the  transformations  and  ameliorations  of 
science  and  art.  In  both  cases  the  agents  of  this 
transformation  are  human  hearts,  human  wills  and 
human  hands.  "Whoever  diverts  natural  forces  into 
the  service  of  man ;  whoever  drains  a  marsh  or  clears 
a  jungle,  builds  a  bridge,  tunnels  a  mountain  or  in- 
vents a  labor-saving  machine;  whoever  cheapens  a 
product  necessary  for  the  sustenance  of  man,  stays  the 
progress  of  infection,  pestilence  or  famine,  or  lightens 
the  burdens  of  the  weary  and  the  heavy  laden,  is  an 
agent,  under  Providence,  for  the  physical  regenera- 
tion of  the  world,  and  is  acting  an  acceptable  part  in 
the  grand  drama  of  life.  And  so  in  the  moral  world, 
whoever  increases  the  sum  of  human  happiness  or  di- 
minishes the  sum  of  human  misery ;  whoever  extends 


250  APPENDIX 

the  horizon  of  the  human  intelligence,  lends  inspira- 
tion to  noble  living  and  makes  it  easier  to  walk  in  the 
paths  of  righteousness ;  whoever  dries  up  a  source  of 
vice,  substitutes  an  innocent  pleasure  for  a  corrupting 
passion,  makes  virtue  lovable  and  sin  loathsome,  is 
fulfilling  his  destiny  as  a  man  and  is  one  of  God's 
instruments  for  converting  the  kingdoms  of  this  world 
into  the  kingdoms  of  the  Lord  and  of  his  Christ. 

The  work  of  reformation  is  therefore  the  highest 
type  of  human  activity;  and  taking  the  term  in  its 
comprehensive  and  legitimate  sense,  it  should  be  the 
aspiration  of  every  human  being  to  become  a  reformer. 
No  human  being  has  the  right  to  live  without  making 
the  world  better,  and  as  much  better  as  he  has  been 
blessed  with  talent  and  opportunity.  No  one  has  a 
right  to  lead  a  life  of  passive  enjoyment,  always  re- 
ceiving but  never  giving ;  and  much  less  has  any  one 
the  right  to  make  the  world  worse  for  his  having  lived 
in  it.  This,  in  outline,  is  what  I  mean  by  a  theory 
of  life,  and  is  also  in  outline  the  theory  of  life  which 
I  wish  to  commend  to  you.  I  wish  to  urge  you  to 
devote  your  lives  to  the  work  of  human  reform,  and 
to  set  before  yourselves  the  ambition  to  add  somewhat 
to  the  grand  total  of  human  happiness  and  virtue. 
In  the  best  sense  of  the  term,  every  human  life  must 


A    THEORY    OF    LIFE  251 

be  aggressive  in  welldoing,  and  in  this  divinely  or- 
dained mission  we  must  all  be  members  of  the  Church 
militant ;  we  must  do  our  part  toward  the  redemption 
of  the  world  from  wretchedness,  ignorance  and  sin. 

In  the  moral  world,  as  in  the  physical,  there  is 
going  on  an  upward  transformation  tending  to  life, 
beauty  and  righteousness ;  and  also  a  downward  trans- 
formation as  surely  tending  to  death,  deformity  and 
unrighteousness.  In  all  ages  of  the  world  there  have 
been  heroic  men  and  women,  saintly  in  aspiration  and 
life,  who  have  drawn  humanity  upwards  towards  holi- 
ness and  truth ;  and  during  all  these  ages  the  world 
has  been  filled  with  men  and  women  of  coarser  mould, 
many  of  whom  have  been  the  pronounced  champions 
of  disorder  and  vice.  Sometimes,  and  especially  when 
our  field  of  view  is  contracted,  we  conclude  that  the 
dominant  forces  are  evil,  and  then  we  fall  into 
the  slough  of  pessimism ;  but  when  we  take  a  broader 
survey  of  the  world,  and  read  the  history  of  morals 
more  attentively,  we  find  room  to  believe  that  the  pre- 
vailing transformation  is  the  upward  one  toward  light 
and  life.  Surely  if  each  generation  of  men  had  been 
tending  downward  by  never  so  little,  the  whole  world 
by  this  time  had  been  one  Sodom ;  but  it  is  doubtless 
true  that  at  no  other  ijeriod  in  the  world's  history  have 


252  APPENDIX 

there  lived  so  many  men  and  women  of  heroic  and  saintly 
mould  as  now.  The  type  of  family  life  has  never  been 
80  high.  Public  reprobation  of  sin  has  never  been  so 
prompt  and  so  just.  It  has  never  been  so  easy  to  lead 
a  life  of  moral  serenity  and  sweetness.  There  has 
never  been  so  much  beauty  and  hopefulness  in  the 
world.  There  has  never  been  such  abundant  reason 
tc  thank  God  for  the  blessedness  of  living  and  work- 
ing. Into  your  theory  of  life  I  wish  you  would  put 
this  radiant  and  inspiring  optimism.  Be  trustful  in 
God  and  in  the  omnipotence  of  goodness.  Be  hopeful 
of  mankind  and  ever  look  on  the  brighter  side  of 
human  life. 

The  age  of  martyrs  has  not  passed,  but  martyrdom 
has  taken  so  many  forms  and  has  become  so  common 
that  it  has  ceased,  save  in  extreme  cases,  to  strike  the 
public  eye.  To-day,  in  all  quarters  of  the  globe,  there 
are  Christian  missionaries  with  all  the  fervor  and  in- 
trepidity of  Saint  Paul,  men  and  women  who,  with 
their  lives  in  their  hands,  turn  their  backs  on  civiliza- 
tion and  kindred,  and  joyfully  condemn  themselves  to 
privations  and  exile  to  the  end  that  they  may  aid  in 
establishing  the  promised  kingdom  of  peace  and  good 
will  among  men.  Was  there  ever  martyrdom  more 
conspicuous   or  more    saintly    than  that  of    Father 


A    THEORY  OF   LIFE 

Damien?  Such  a  life  gives  new  dignity  and  grandeur 
to  human  nature  and  sensibly  exalts  the  standard  of 
human  virtue  and  duty.  I  see  no  reason  why  we  may 
not  say  Saint  Damien  as  reverently  and  as  truly  as 
Saint  Stephen.  We  may  be  sure  that  whether  in 
ancient  times  or  in  modern  such  lives  and  such  sacri- 
fices are  well  pleasing  to  God. 

Every  true  life  must  embody  the  spirit  of  sacrifice 
and  self-denial.  If  we  receive  and  enjoy,  it  must  be 
to  the  end  that  we  may  add  to  the  stock  of  others' 
enjoyment.  We  must  see  them  raised  at  least  to  our 
own  plane  of  privilege ;  and  while  we  thus  abandon 
the  old  satisfaction  of  passive  enjoyment,  we  shall  find 
even  a  keener  and  purer  pleasure  in  those  activities 
which  result  in  others'  good.  The  sensible  pleasure 
we  take  in  adding  to  our  own  stock  of  knowledge  is 
very  great ;  but  the  pleasure  we  feel  while  informing 
another  human  soul  is  much  greater.  It  is  more 
blessed  to  give  than  to  receive,  and  the  most  beatific 
life  is  one  which  is  inspired  and  purified  by  the  spirit 
of  self-sacrifice. 

As  the  instance  is  modem,  let  George  Peabody 
serve  as  one  term  of  contrast ;  let  his  history  typify 
the  kind  of  life  that  comports  with  human  dignity  and 
human  destiny.     For  the  other  term  of  the  contraat 


254  APPENDIX 

select  one  case  of  the  thousands  that  force  themselves 
on  public  notice,  say  that  of  the  man  whose  occupa- 
tion is  to  put  the  bottle  to  his  neighbor's  lips,  whose 
income  means  profligacy,  wretchedness,  degradation, 
disgrace  and  hideous  death.  Has  the  doctrine  of  two 
mighty  and  opposing  forces,  known  as  good  and  evil, 
ever  seemed  to  you  no  more  than  an  ethical  theory? 
In  any  city  or  village  which  you  chance  to  know  count 
up  all  its  benevolent  and  beneficent  institutions,  such 
as  schools,  churches,  hospitals,  etc.,  and  then  count 
up  the  saloons,  gambling  rooms  and  other  haunts  of 
vice.  Is  there  not  here  an  awful  hand-to-hand  con- 
flict between  real  men  of  flesh  and  blood?  What  is 
assailed  and  what  defended?  Innocence,  virtue,  hap- 
piness, honor,  everything  that  is  noblest  and  best  in 
human  life.  "When  the  powers  of  evil  so  greatly  out- 
number the  powers  of  good,  what  prevents  human 
society  from  falling  into  absolute  and  hopeless  ruin? 
It  must  be  that  the  innate  tendency  of  human  nature 
is  upward,  and  that  good  is  mightier  than  evil.  It  is 
into  this  conflict  that  you  must  enter  as  active  com- 
batants if  your  life  is  to  have  a  meaning  and  a 
purpose. 

For  purposes  of  right  living  there  is  no  neutral 
ground  that  an   honest  man  can  occupy.     It  is  not 


A    THEORY   OF    LIFE  265 

enough  merely  to  subsist  or  vegetate,  to  float  lazily 
down  the  stream  of  time;  but  real  living  must  be 
aggressive ;  we  must  often  make  our  way  against  the 
current,  and  must  sometimes  even  turn  the  current  in 
a  new  direction.  The  blessedness  of  living  consists  in 
an  activity  directed  to  benevolent  and  beneficent  ends ; 
and  for  this  reason  the  best  condition  into  which  one 
can  be  bom  is  that  of  honest  poverty.  Young  man, 
if  you  have  health,  thank  Heaven  that  you  have  no 
visible  inheritance  save  a  sound  body  and  brain,  a 
tender  conscience  and  an  affectionate  heart.  You  have 
everything  to  live  for,  and  every  moment  of  your  con- 
scious life  may  bring  you  its  peculiar  joy.  Hope  is 
more  blessed  than  consummation.  Pioneer  life  in  a 
cabin  is  happier  than  a  life  of  ease  in  a  ceiled  house. 
Activity  brightens  and  sharpens,  while  indolence  cor- 
rodes and  dulls.  If  you  would  control  your  destiny 
and  your  happiness,  place  before  yourselves  some 
worthy  and  beautiful  object  for  which  to  hope,  pray 
and  labor. 

Count  it  a  blessing  to  be  called  to  do  pioneer  work. 
There  is  nothing  more  inspiring  than  the  work  of 
organization.  To  coordinate  and  set  in  motion  forces 
which  shall  open  some  new  and  prolific  source  of 
human  weal  is  akin  to  creation ;  and  at  such  a  pros- 


256  APPENDIX 

pect  every  noble  heart  will  beat  faster,  and  the  active 
brain  will  find  a  happy  employment  for  all  its  inven- 
tive and  directive  resources.  Is  it  a  little  thing  thus 
to  project  one's  thought  and  purpose  into  the  future, 
and  to  make  one's  self  an  active  agent  in  blessing  the 
race  long  after  one's  name  has  faded  from  the  minds  of 
men?  We  may  all  aspire  after  this  happy  immortality, 
and  may  make  it  the  deliberate  purpose  of  our  lives 
to  re-create  in  some  degree,  not  only  the  world  of 
matter,  but  the  higher  world  of  man's  moral  life. 
The  soul  of  every  good  man  has,  in  an  intelligible 
sense,  been  incorporated  into  the  world  of  spiritual 
forces,  just  as  the  mind  of  wise  men  has  been  incor- 
porated into  the  world  of  material  forces.  The  steam 
engine  is  the  genius  of  Watt  informing  inert  iron. 
St.  Paul's  Cathedral  is  the  soul  of  Sir  Christopher 
Wren  incarnate.  This  republic  is  the  patriotism  of 
Washington.  There  may  not  be  a  real  transmigration 
of  souls,  but  there  is  certainly  a  transfusion  of  genius, 
intellect  and  emotion.  All  this  is  simple  and  more 
common  than  it  seems.  As  I  speak  I  am  merely 
translating  the  mind  and  heart  of  my  teachers ;  and 
if  I  have  taught  you  to  any  purpose,  I  shall  teach 
most  truly  when,  multiplied  by  hundreds,  I  come  to 
teach  your  pupils.     If  you  work  in  accordance  with 


A    THEORY    OF    LIFE  267 

the  theory  of  life  which  I  am  attempting  to  mifold, 
all  that  is  best  in  you  will  become  incorporated  into 
your  schools,  and  your  net  personahty  will  be  repeated 
in  every  one  of  your  pupils. 

With  each  generation  the  work  of  the  teacher 
begins  anew,  and  if  he  will,  he  may  taste  the  peren- 
nial charm  of  pioneer  life.  The  child  of  to-day  must 
be  taught  to  read  just  as  though  no  child  had  ever 
learned  to  read.  Our  tools,  indeed,  come  to  us  by 
inheritance,  but  our  toil  is  the  toil  of  Sisyphus.  The 
burden  which  our  predecessors  raised  to  the  top  of  the 
hill  has  fallen  to  the  bottom,  and  we  must  raise  it  in 
our  turn  just  as  though  it  had  never  been  lifted. 
Knowledge,  indeed,  remains  and  accumulates,  but 
skill  perishes  with  the  life  that  uses  it. 

In  a  comparative  or  modified  sense,  the  work  of  the 
poet,  the  painter,  the  architect  and  the  man  of  letters 
has  been  done,  and  done  forever.  Those  who  toil  in 
these  fields  must  compete  with  the  whole  world  and 
with  all  time.  The  best  that  can  be  done  remains, 
and  almost  as  fresh  as  when  it  came  from  the  hand  of 
the  Master.  In  these  fields  the  achievements  of  gen- 
ius confront  us  to  inspire,  but  also  to  discourage  and 
dismay.     As  distinguished  from  these  well   trodden 

and  conquered  fields,  each  new  teacher  finds  a  new 
17 


258  APPENDIX 

world  as  the  sphere  of  his  activities,  and  he  may  exi- 
dress  himself  to  the  task  of  a  new  creation. 

Debt,  used  in  the  sense  of  obligation,  is  the  normal 
and  necessary  condition  of  man.  On  entering  life, 
our  whole  environment,  material,  intellectual,  moral, 
religious,  social  and  political,  is  ready-made  for  us. 
The  hands  that  have  wrought  for  us,  if  clasped  in 
line,  would  reach  back  to  the  dawn  of  human  history. 
The  axe  that  has  cleared  the  wilderness  for  our  fields 
has  been  echoing  through  the  ages.  The  civil  liberty 
we  enjoy  has  cost  rivers  of  human  blood.  That  it  is 
possible  for  us  to  worship  God  with  no  one  to  molest 
or  make  afraid  is  because  toleration  has  been  pur- 
chased for  us  by  innumerable  martyrs.  The  largest 
factor  in  civilization  is  sacrifice.  The  men  of  one 
generation  have  sown  in  tears  in  order  that  those  of 
coming  generations  might  reap  in  joy.  Every  advance 
step  that  humanity  has  taken  has  been  made  at  the  cost 
of  tears,  groans,  agonies  and  blood.  Since  this  indebt- 
edness of  inheritance  is  involuntary,  we  are  only  half 
conscious  of  it ;  and  many  of  its  forms  are  so  occult  that 
they  escape  all  but  the  keenest  vision.  We  are  debtors, 
I  repeat,  to  the  entire  past  of  humanity,  to  all  the  gen- 
erations of  men  that  have  preceded  us  on  the  earth ; 
and  this  debt  is  as  real  as  any  debt  that  we  can  volun- 


A   THEORY   OF    LIFE  259 

tarily  contract,  and  the  obligation  to  pay  it  is  as  sacred 
as  any  obligation  that  can  bind  a  man  of  honor.  But 
as  there  can  be  no  repayment  to  the  past,  to  whom 
can  we  discharge  our  debt  unless  to  the  generation 
that  is  to  follow  us?  Humanity  is  one.  From  hu- 
manity we  have  borrowed  this  capital  on  which  the 
business  of  life  has  been  conducted,  and  to  humanity 
we  must  return  these  inherited  possessions  with  some 
rental  in  the  way  of  improvements. 

It  is  important  to  note  the  fact  that  if  the  world  is 
to  grow  better  we  must  transmit  more  than  we  have 
received.  Our  two  talents  must  not  be  buried  in  the 
earth,  but  when  returned  there  must  go  with  them 
other  talents  which  they  have  gained  by  use.  Into 
what  we  have  inherited  we  must  incorporate  some 
precious  element  which  has  proceeded  from  our  own 
creative  power.  For  in  a  secondary  sense  we  are  all 
creators,  coworkers  with  God.  Whatever  material 
passes  through  our  hands,  however  formless  and  inert 
it  may  be,  should  issue  from  them  bearing  the  seal  of 
our  creative  skill.  The  thoughts  that  we  appropriate 
as  a  part  of  our  intellectual  inheritance  should  be  sub- 
jected to  the  subtile  chemistry  of  our  heart  and  brain 
and  transformed  into  winged  messengers  of  life  and 
hope.     Freely  we  have  received  and  freely  we  must 


260  APPENDIX 

give.  "We  are  the  heirs  of  all  the  ages,  and  we  must 
transmit  our  inheritance  in  such  a  way  that  it  may 
give  to  our  successors  on  the  earth  visible  advantages 
over  ourselves.  Their  lives  must  be  richer  and  fuller 
than  ours,  and  we  must  impose  a  heavier  debt  on  thsm 
than  we  ourselves  have  borne. 

If  I  have  made  myself  clear  in  what  has  preceded, 
you  can  now  understand  that  a  college  is  a  sort  of 
clearing  house  for  the  adjustment  and  settlement  of 
debts  which  have  accumulated  against  the  last  genera- 
tion. We  who  are  teachers  are  the  agents  through 
whom  these  debts  are  to  be  paid ;  while  the  students 
are  not  only  receiving  their  own,  but  are,  in  turn, 
contracting  a  debt  which  they  must  pay  to  their  suc- 
cessors on  the  earth.  When  the  men  who  are  now 
active  on  the  stage  of  life  provide  schools  for  the  edu- 
cation of  the  young,  they  are  not  engaged  in  alms- 
giving as  some  of  them  seem  to  think ;  but  they  are 
simply  doing  what  honorable  men  take  most  pride  in 
doing,  paying  an  honest  debt.  As  there  is  no  possible 
escape  from  this  inheritance  in  its  thousand  forms,  so 
there  is  no  honorable  escape  from  this  implied  obliga- 
tion to  spend  our  lives  in  the  service  of  humanity.  I 
sometimes  hear  it  said  that  the  obligation  to  pay  for 
the  education  of  others'  children  is  an  injustice,  and 


A    THEORY    OF    LIFE  261 

that  to  receive  such  an  education  is  a  humiUation.  In 
a  distant  State  I  am  taxed  to  build  bridges  which  I 
shall  never  cross,  to  support  asylums  and  prisons  in 
which  I  have  no  personal  interest,  and  to  pay  the  sala- 
ries of  officials  whose  services  I  shall  never  require. 
Is  this  tax,  therefore,  an  injustice?  All  my  life  I 
have  been  crossing  bridges  which  I  did  not  build; 
should  I  not  therefore  help  to  build  bridges  for  others 
to  cross?  The  property  of  others  has  been  taxed  in 
order  to  provide  means  for  the  protection  of  my  pro- 
perty and  person.  Should  I  not  therefore  take  my 
turn  in  furnishing  such  protection  to  others?  The 
inmate  of  that  asylum  for  whom  the  public  purse 
provides  a  home  is  my  brother  man ;  shall  I  not  there- 
fore succor  him?  And  possibly  his  misfortune  may 
one  day  be  mine ;  may  I  not  risk  a  shilling  on  such  a 
possibility  without  thinking  it  robbery?  And  need  it 
cost  us  any  sense  of  humility  to  cross  bridges  we  did 
not  build,  to  traverse  streets  we  did  not  pave,  or  to 
worship  in  churches  to  whose  support  we  have  not 
contributed  ?  These  are  public,  and  not  private  goods, 
provided  by  all  for  the  benefit  of  all,  and  we  may 
enjoy  them  with  no  other  solicitude  than  a  desire  to 
do  our  part  towards  assuring  to  posterity  the  enjoy- 
ment of  even  greater  blessings. 


262  APPENDIX 

There  are  certain  universal  goods  to  the  free  enjoy- 
ment of  which  every  human  being  is  entitled  by 
virtue  of  his  birth,  such  as  air,  light,  water  and  free- 
dom, and  such  also  is  education  which  is  but  another 
name  for  freedom.  When  we  speak  of  education  as 
being  free,  we  do  not  mean  that  it  is  a  charity,  as  a 
coat  given  to  a  beggar  is  a  charity ;  for  the  utmost  we 
can  do  is  to  bring  it  within  the  easy  reach  of  every 
human  soul.  After  this  has  been  done  it  must  be 
earned  by  the  sweat  of  the  brain  if  it  is  ever  acquired 
at  all.  The  man  who  would  provide  education  for  no 
children  but  his  own,  has  yet  to  learn  the  art  of  manly 
living. 

In  a  former  paragraph,  when  urging  the  mission  of 
human  reform,  I  had  in  mind  the  adaptation  of  crude 
material  to  higher  uses,  or,  in  more  general  terms,  the 
re-creation  of  the  natural  world  through  human  art. 
I  will  now  return  to  this  phase  of  my  theme  in  order 
to  discuss  the  subject  of  reform  in  its  secondary  and 
usual  signification,  as  when  we  speak  of  educational, 
moral  or  political  reform.  Here  we  have  in  mind  the 
giving  of  a  new  and  better  form,  not  to  nature's 
handiwork,  but  to  man's ;  and  there  is  implied  in  this 
purpose  the  assumption,  on  our  own  part,  that  the 
existing  form  is  wrong.     How  does  it  happen,  then, 


A    THEORY    OF    LIFE  263 

that  human  institutions  stand  in  need  of  reformation? 
Reformation  implies  a  return  towards  simplicity,  and 
consists  in  restoring  fimction  to  office,  spirit  to  form, 
and  content  to  word;  or,  in  general,  it  consists  in 
reuniting  soul  with  body.  Formality  is  always  easier 
than  spirituality ;  and  the  danger  of  mistaking  form 
for  spirit  is  always  imminent.  The  comments  of  the 
rabbins  on  the  law  of  Moses  became  so  numerous  and 
so  authoritative  that  the  law  disappeared  from  sight 
and  the  Mishna  remained ;  and  following  the  natural 
course  of  things,  there  arose  commentators  on  the 
Mishna  whose  comments  became  in  turn  so  numerous 
and  so  authoritative  that  the  Mishna  was  lost  from 
sight  and  the  Gemara  remained,  a  commentary  on  a 
commentary  on  the  law  of  Moses !  In  the  fifth  cen- 
tury B.  C,  the  Sophists  made  a  merchandise  of 
knowledge  and  reduced  human  learning  to  a  verbal 
formulary.  The  progress  of  human  thought  was 
arrested,  for  men  were  no  longer  dealing  with  ideas, 
but  with  terms.  Then  Socrates,  ' '  the  cross-question- 
ing god,"  appeared,  and  restored  to  empty  forms  their 
spiritual  content,  and  so  produced  the  first  great 
intellectual  reform. 

The  ancient  Jews  had  become  spiritually  dead  be- 
cause they  had  lapsed  completely  into  hollow  formalism ; 


264  APPENDIX 

spirit  had  been  completely  divorced  from  letter ;  and 
they  worshipped  the  letter.  Then  the  Great  Teacher 
appeared  whose  mission,  in  his  own  words,  was  to 
fulfill;  that  is,  to  restore  to  the  words  of  the  law 
their  spiritual  and  living  content.  I  need  not  point 
out  how  Protestantism,  Puritanism,  Quakerism  and 
Methodism  all  had  their  origin  and  vindication  in  this 
tendency  to  exalt  form  over  spirit. 

In  the  time  of  Charles  the  First  the  progress  of 
civil  freedom  had  been  obstructed  because  the  king 
had  substituted  prerogative  for  function.  Then  Crom- 
well took  the  case  in  hand,  with  one  blow  of  his  axe 
cut  away  the  offending  thing  and  restored  to  English 
liberty  her  rightful  way.  In  France,  in  1789,  the 
monster  that  had  crushed  out  human  liberty  under  the 
name  of  kingly  prerogative  was  hydra-headed;  but 
the  deliverer  came,  the  guillotine  was  set  up  in  Paris, 
her  streets  ran  blood  for  a  season,  function  was  re- 
stored to  office,  and  French  liberty  went  on  her  way 
triumphant. 

In  general,  educational  reform  has  consisted  in  the 
substitution  of  things  for  signs,  or,  rather,  in  bringing 
together  word  and  content.  This  was  particularly  the 
mission  of  Comenius  and  Pestalozzi,  whose  constant 
exhortation  was  to  study  things  rather  than  words. 


A   THEORY   OF    LIFE  265 

Rousseau  took  a  wider  survey  of  the  field  of  reform 
and  aimed  to  relieve  education  of  its  conventionalities 
by  bringing  it  back  to  nature,  or,  so  far  as  possible, 
to  the  reactions  of  the  child's  primitive  environment. 
In  education  there  is  always  danger  of  substituting  the 
book  for  the  teacher,  the  word  for  the  idea  which  it 
represents.  Reform  should  consist,  not  in  displacing 
the  book  and  the  word,  but  in  endowing  teachers  with 
the  power  of  interpretation,  and  in  learning  things 
through  words,  or  in  making  an  indissoluble  union 
between  things  and  words. 

In  all  these  cases,  religious,  political,  intellectual 
and  educational,  the  important  question  is  whether  it 
is  not  possible  to  keep  the  stream  of  thought  and 
action  clear  of  those  conventional  and  artificial  ob- 
structions, whether  the  periodical  blocking  of  the 
stream  may  not  be  avoided,  or  at  least,  whether  relief 
may  not  be  applied  at  almost  insensible  intervals  so 
that  no  violent  and  destructive  measures  may  be  re- 
quired. In  other  words,  may  not  a  peaceful  and 
normal  evolution  be  substituted  for  a  destructive  and 
reckless  revolution?  If  I  interpret  history  aright, 
this  is  the  tendency  of  progressive  civilization ;  and  at 
least  in  education  I  feel  sure  that  an  every  day  refor- 
mation is  possible  under  conditions  that  are  not  hard 


266  APPENDIX 

to  realize,  and  that  this  evolution  might  avert  those 
disasters  known  as  educational  reforms.  I  will  speak 
briefly  of  one  or  two  of  these  conditions. 

For  the  wise  direction  of  educational  affairs  there  is 
need  of  cultivating  what  might  be  called  educational 
statesmanship  :  the  ability  to  take  an  accurate,  almost 
prophetic  forecast  of  the  current  and  consensus  of 
human  opinion  as  it  bears  on  this  subject,  and  skill  in 
organizing  forces  which  will  act  over  wide  areas  and 
inspire  and  direct  all  subordinate  agencies  as  they  are 
included  in  the  practical  management  of  schools. 
What  is  the  source  of  this  forecast  and  this  breadth 
of  view?  As  general  history  is  the  statesman's  chart 
and  logbook,  so  the  history  of  educational  thought 
and  practice  must  be  one  source  of  what  I  have  ven- 
tured to  call  educational  statesmanship.  From  an 
observation  of  the  course  of  educational  thought  in 
past  time,  we  may  infer  its  probable  direction  in  the 
future ;  and  warned  by  the  debris  of  ' '  systems ' ' 
which  mark  the  path  of  educational  history,  we  may 
economize  time,  effort  and  money,  and  thus  eliminate 
chances  of  error  and  failure.  I  am  firm  in  the  belief 
that  the  serious  study  of  educational  history  is  the 
constitutional  remedy  for  those  ^'inconsiderate  re- 
forms ' '  or  spasms  which  have  become  almost  periodical 


A    THEORY    OF    LIFE  267 

and  may  be  predicted  with  almost  as  much  certainty 
as  tornadoes,  as  well  as  for  those  real  crises  or  revolu- 
tions which  result  from  the  secular  accumulation  of 
abuses. 

I  have  said  that  the  study  of  educational  history 
will  give  us  a  clew  to  the  probable  direction  of  edu- 
cational thought ;  but  as  the  course  of  events  has  been 
for  the  most  part  instinctive  or  impulsive,  rather  than 
rational,  its  projection  into  the  future  needs  to  be 
corrected  by  some  fixed  point  in  advance,  and  this 
point  of  direction  is  revealed  by  educational  science. 
Patrick  Henry  was  a  great  statesman  and  an  incom- 
parable orator ;  but  he  was  manifestly  wrong  when  he 
said  '*I  know  of  no  way  of  judging  of  the  future 
but  by  the  past,"  if  he  meant  this  for  a  general  truth. 
The  past  is  not  necessarily  to  be  projected  into  the 
future,  and  the  future  itself  is  subject  in  no  small 
degree  to  human  control.  We  may  shape  the  future 
into  correspondence  with  our  ideals ;  we  may  project 
into  it,  not  merely  the  past,  but  our  own  conception 
of  truth  and  beauty ;  and  in  educational  effort  these 
conceptions  are  in  part  the  products  of  scientific  study. 
There  is  a  science  of  the  soul,  there  is  a  science  of 
human  duty,  there  is  a  theory  of  the  State ;  and  their 
point  of  convergence  is  the  polestar  towards  which 


APPENDIX 

humanity  is  verging,  and  by  which  the  course  of 
education  is  to  be  directed. 

In  urging  upon  the  teacher  the  duty  of  leading  an 
aggressive  life,  and  of  impressing  himself  on  the 
world  for  its  good,  I  have  been  almost  unconsciously 
drawn  to  the  work  of  teaching,  because  I  think  that 
the  most  active  and  powerful  agent  in  the  upward 
transformation  of  society  is  the  teacher.  But  it  is 
not  enough  to  have  a  vague  sense  of  being  useful  to 
the  world ;  effective  work  of  whatever  kind  requires 
definite  conceptions  and  aims.  In  what  particular 
ways,  then,  may  the  teacher  be  a  benefactor? 

One  essential  condition  of  right  living  is  correct  and 
effective  thinking— the  ability  to  divest  a  complex 
question  for  the  moment  of  the  halo  of  feeling,  to 
analyze  it  by  a  process  of  cold  logic,  to  discover  its 
bearings  on  known  principles  of  right  and  wrong,  and 
to  draw  a  conclusion  which  shall  determine  one's 
course  of  action  with  reference  to  it.  This  is  what 
is  comprehended  in  a  training  of  the  judgment,  and 
the  result  of  such  training  is  the  habit  of  giving  in- 
stant domination  to  the  reason  over  feeling  and 
passion  when  they  interfere  to  prevent  the  course  of 
action.  The  logical  engine  may  be  trained  to  work 
automatically,    and  when  this  is  done  it  makes  its 


A    THEORY    OF    LIFE 

possessor  self-contained  and  self-poised,  a  law  unto 
himself.  These  logical  processes  are  best  learned  by 
dealing  at  first  with  problems  which  are  naturally 
divested  of  all  feeling,  such  as  those  of  mathematics 
and  the  physical  sciences ;  and  when  the  faculty  has 
received  its  training  it  may  be  applied  to  problems 
which  are  invested  with  feeling,  such  as  those  of  his- 
tory, literature  and  geography.  Only  the  eye  that 
is  completely  achromatic  is  fit  to  perceive  the  truth  in 
the  domain  of  philosophy,  politics  and  morals.*'^ 

Heal  living  brings  a  human  being  into  close  relations 
with  the  material  world,  the  industrial  world,  the 
social  world,  the  moral  world,  and  the  civil  world; 
and  the  possibility  of  right  Kving  makes  necessary  a 
knowledge  of  these  various  relations.  If  man  is  to 
lead  an  active,  positive  life,  there  is  every  probability 
that  he  will  go  wrong  unless  he  can  see  with  some 
clearness  his  sphere  of  duty  with  respect  to  these 
various  orders  of  activity.  This,  in  the  art  of  educa- 
tion, is  the  sphere  of  useful  or  instrumental  knowl- 
edge, and  constitutes  what  is  called  practical  educa- 
tion. If  well  conducted,  it  assures  to  the  learner  a 
life  of  prosperity,  usefulness,  happiness  and  honor. 

These  three  things  I  take  to  be  certain :  every  man 

*BenaD,  Souvenirs,  p.  285. 


270  APPENDIX 

has  a  right  to  happiness ;  he  will  seek  this  happiness 
in  some  quarter ;  if  he  does  not  find  it  in  the  region 
of  the  higher  emotions  he  will  find  it  in  the  region  of 
the  baser  feelings  and  the  passions.  I  would  therefore 
make  happiness  one  of  the  distinct  aims  of  education ; 
and  to  this  end  the  mind  must  be  supplied  with  knowl- 
edge which  will  yield  mental  satisfaction  or  intellectual 
delight.  No  one  is  in  a  state  of  moral  safety  while 
his  happiness  is  dependent  on  conditions  which  lie 
outside  of  himself ;  the  sources  from  which  he  habit- 
ually draws  his  happiness  should  be  within.  This,  in 
the  art  of  education,  is  the  sphere  of  culture  knowl- 
edge, and  embraces  history,  geography,  literature,  art 
and  music.  The  pupil  should  not  only  be  made  happy 
for  the  present,  but  large  provisions  should  be  made 
for  his  happiness  in  the  future.  The  sorrows  of  life 
come  only  too  soon  and  they  will  make  shipwreck  of 
the  human  soul  unless  there  are  resources  within  from 
which  consolation  and  hope  may  be  derived.  Perhaps 
there  is  no  spiritual  gift  more  to  be  coveted  than 
serenity,  a  calmness  and  composure  of  soul  which 
gives  steadiness  to  purpose  and  preserves  us  from  the 
fury  of  emotional  storms.  Make  liberal  provision 
for  the  happiness  of  your  pupils  and  you  will  make 
pleasures  unnecessary. 


A   THEORY   OF    LIFE  271 

Closely  connected  with  the  culture  element  in  edu- 
cation there  is  another  to  which  I  can  give  no  name, 
and  which  I  may  be  unable  to  describe ;  but  in  im- 
portance it  takes  precedence  of  all  others.  I  have 
seen  men  and  women  whose  whole  Kves  have  been 
inspired,  beautified  and  ennobled  by  high  ideals  that 
they  have  caught  from  some  inspiring  teacher.  With 
bent  form  and  hair  whitening  for  the  grave,  the  face 
still  beams  with  high  resolve  and  radiant  hope.  A 
peaceful  serenity  sweetens  a  life  that  has  experienced 
many  sorrows,  and  a  sense  of  personal  dignity  lends 
an  air  of  grace  to  the  commonest  duties.  A  bow  of 
promise  is  always  in  tlie  heavens ;  and  there  is  always 
some  beautiful  thing  to  hope  for  and  to  work  for.  The 
brow  has  been  furrowed  by  the  cares  and  sorrows  of 
a  long  life,  but  it  seems  to  reflect  some  of  the  radiance 
that  falls  on  it  from  the  brighter  world  beyond. 

Sometimes  measure  your  teaching  power  by  this 
standard  and  you  may  discern  the  best  gift  that  I 
covet  for  you.  Of  all  the  good  you  can  do  in  this 
world,  this  is  doubtless  the  chief ;  and  if  you  can  do 
it  you  are  the  very  ministers  of  God,  good  angels  sent 
into  the  world  to  aid  in  its  redemption. 

I  can  dwell  only  a  moment  on  some  of  the  endow- 
ments you  will  need  for  such  a  mission  as  I  have  tried 
to  describe. 


272  APPENDIX 

You  miiBt  be  benevolent  in  the  truest  and  fullest 
sense  of  the  term ;  your  whole  nature  must  be  swayed 
and  governed  by  a  desire  to  do  good  in  the  world. 
The  sorrows  of  life  must  melt  your  heart  to  tender- 
ness and  must  impel  your  feet  to  be  ever  running  on 
errands  of  mercy.  From  moment  to  moment  you 
must  live  in  the  consciousness  that  this  is  the  prime 
service  which  God  requires  of  every  creature;  and 
you  must  make  every  other  purpose  subservient  to 
this.  Without  any  austerity  of  manner,  speech,  or 
dress  as  a  visible  sign  of  your  resolves,  you  must  lead 
a  life  of  devotion  and  even  consecration.  Such  was 
the  life  of  Pestalozzi,  Arnold,  and  of  the  beloved 
Page,  real  apostles  and  teachers  with  a  commission  as 
sacred  as  though  conferred  by  the  laying  on  of  hands. 

There  is  a  group  of  moral  qualities  including  mag- 
nanimity, charity,  toleration  and  judicial  fairness, 
which  should  be  counted  among  the  very  best  gifts 
that  you  can  covet ;  and  a  life  that  is  inspired  and 
guided  by  these  virtues  will  be  mighty  in  good  works. 

/    ^    Of  1 

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